


Witness

by SarahEverton



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Psychological Drama, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2018-12-20 16:47:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 43,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11925060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SarahEverton/pseuds/SarahEverton
Summary: Maggie is on an undercover mission to infiltrate a cult lead by an alien. When the DEO finds her after she's gone radio-silent, it's already too late.With no memory of what happened in the last 24 hours, she and Alex struggle to figure out what happened behind the closed gates.





	1. Chapter 1

It wasn't that she didn't trust Maggie Sawyer with every inch of her body. It wasn't that she would ever doubt the woman that had turned out to complete her in a way that Alex never thought possible outside of fairytales and romantic movies.

She'd give her life for Maggie. And she knew that the detective felt the same.

But as Alex soared through the sky in a helicopter, in full tactical gear and cramped up, surrounded by three other agents, she felt her heart clench painfully at the thought of what would happen in the next hour.

The last time she'd seen Maggie, had been four weeks ago. An entire  _month_  without seeing or touching her. The only time she'd heard her voice was when she'd check in. Risking her own life three times a day just to be able to tell Alex the things she was seeing inside the walls of the community.

Undercover in a cult that wouldn't hesitate to kill her the second they noticed she wasn't like them. Brainwashed, idolizing a creature that they thought a god. A creature that they had to catch from the inside, to avoid it feeling cornered and taking his followers down with him.

She'd hated that Maggie volunteered.

The agent in her would have been the first to recommend Detective Maggie Sawyer as the woman for the job. She was a great negotiator, had done undercover ops before, and was no stranger to dangerous situations.

But it was  _Maggie_. Her wife. The woman she was going to spend the rest of her life with.

They both knew how dangerous the mission was. They were both present during the joint taskforce meetings with the DEO and the NCPD, setting up the operation.

_They knew._

And yet, flying over the desert and seeing the small, isolated town in the middle of nowhere appear, Alex regretted the day she agreed to send Maggie off, watching her march into the gates, disappearing into another life.

She'd lost Maggie Sawyer four weeks ago. The woman inside that town was Margaret. She wasn't married, she was straight, and she pledged her life to some alien, hoping that he would notice her, show interest in her.

Alex had seen Maggie undercover before, but only for one evening or night. Infiltrating a party, or a drug deal. Never the long game.

_Never this._

And now, Maggie hadn't checked in for the past 24 hours.

And her gut told her that something had gone very wrong.

" _Approaching target_." The pilot's voice rang in her ears through her earpiece. She glanced out of the chopper, seeing the town now in full view.

She'd never seen it up close, and in person. The small houses, built from scrap metal and wood. The big building in the center, probably a church to worship their  _savior,_ Alex scoffed to herself.

And still within the gates of the town, but stretched far out in the corner, a large patch of green, with trees and grass.

Maggie had told her they called it  _the Garden of Eden_. Obviously, the alien had been studying up on his Biblical terms. An oasis in the middle of the dry and barren desert. An actual  _forest_. One of the leader's…  _less subtle_  miracles.

If Alex didn't know any better, she'd say she was impressed.

But with her mind still on her lover, she found it hard to take any of it in. As much as Maggie had told her about the place - by now, she almost felt like she was living there herself - she had to stay focused on their mission.

_Find Maggie, and get her out of there as soon as possible._

Alex didn't care if she had to shoot that alien herself to make that happen.

She jumped out of the chopper when it was a few feet above the ground, and raised her rifle immediately, finding cover behind the nearest shack. Behind her, the three other agents did the same.

" _Alex_!"

Her sister's voice in her ear. She tapped her earpiece quickly, glancing up at her colleagues. "We're in position, Kara. What's your status?"

" _Alex, something's wrong._ "

The agent didn't like the way that sounded. She braced herself for bad news, resting her head against the wall in front of her.

" _... The entire village, Alex, there's nobody here._ "

Over the sound of the chopper taking off into the sky, she noticed her sister circling around the perimeter of the town.

She had to have misheard her.

"Repeat?" Alex yelled into her earpiece, hoping that whatever horrible thoughts were bubbling up in her mind weren't reality. That Maggie wasn't…

" _There's no sign of life anywhere. All the houses are empty._ "

Alex motioned for the agents to move in, in pairs. Her own partner put a hand on her back, to show that he was ready.

"GO!" Alex yelled, as they poured into the town, kicking open doors and clearing building after building…

Kara had been right. It was a ghost town.

"Ma'am?" One of her agents approached, as they regrouped back on one of the dirt roads. They were waiting for instructions, for a plan…

Alex had neither.

Rendered speechless and numb by the uncertainty creeping in her mind.

Finally, she forced out words, trying to regain some composure in front of her team. "Whiteley, Sullivan, go check out the church building. Me and Johnson will check the forest. Stay alert, keep updating."

A chorus of 'yes ma'am's', and the group scattered. Alex held her rifle close to her chest, ready to fire the second anything pointed to a trap. If the alien had brainwashed his followers into thinking the DEO were some sort of demonic bad guys, they could be outflanked and dead within seconds.

A drop of sweat trickled down her forehead, as they approached the Garden. Johnson raised his rifle and motioned for her to stop, as the both of them watched Supergirl fly into the forest.

Alex counted the silence with her own heartbeats.

And finally, what felt like an eternity later…

" _Alex_ …"

She hadn't imagined the shocked tone, or the disgust in her voice.

Alex knew then that everything was wrong. She slung her rifle over her shoulder, and ran into the forest without looking back, Johnson hot on her heels.

It didn't take long for the agent to notice what exactly Kara seemed so terrified about.

The second Alex stepped past a few trees, she saw a big clearing in the middle of the forest. The trees surrounding it were dense enough to ensure that it couldn't be seen from above. A patch of grass surrounded a few big, circular stones in the center.

She assumed it was an altar.

But it wasn't the stones that caught her attention.

It was the bodies.

More than fifty, strewn all across the clearing. All wearing the same, white clothes.

Alex was frozen. Nailed to the ground as she took in the sight.

Women, men, children. Old, young…

All of them dead.

"Holy  _shit_ …" She heard Johnson curse next to her as he finally caught up with her.

Alex stumbled forward numbly, as she looked around at all the lifeless corpses. Checking them one by one.

_One of them._

The love of her life.

She turned over body after body, her devastation growing with every passing second that she couldn't find  _her_.

" _Alex..._!" The same, traumatized voice in her earpiece. Alex looked up from the woman she'd been turning over, to see Kara running from the other side of the clearing to something behind the altar that Alex couldn't see.

Without even seeing her, Alex knew that Kara had found her.

She took a few steps to walk around the stones, and finally saw the figure Kara had been running towards.

Sitting upright in a pristine white dress, propped up against the altar, gazing at the ground without seeing anything.

Alex's world shattered, as she fell to her knees and stumbled towards her, crying out her lover's name. But it was Kara who pulled her back by the shoulders. "Alex! Alex, she's alive, she's  _breathing_."

Alex stilled completely, turning her head to look at Maggie's form once again. The woman wasn't blinking, and she had to strain to see her chest rise and fall. But no matter the state Maggie was in -  _she was alive._

Surrounded by devastating death, but  _alive_.

"This is agent Johnson, we have secured the target, repeat, target secure."

Alex ignored him and reached for Maggie, pulling her into her arms. But the detective didn't respond in any way to her presence. She looked like she didn't even know where she was.

"What happened to you…?" Alex whispered, more to herself than to Maggie. A hand on her shoulder from Kara snapped her out of her focus, as she looked up to meet her sister's eyes, and nodded weakly.

She pulled Maggie into her arms, kissed her forehead, and carried her towards the chopper.

And vowed to  _kill_  that alien the second she got her hands on him.


	2. Chapter 2

**FOUR WEEKS EARLIER.**

   
" _Is_  it a joint taskforce? Or just another excuse to pull Sawyer off her work and have her running around pretending to be a fed?"

Needless to say, Maggie's boss was completely unimpressed. He was leaning on the back legs of his chair, arms crossed and both feet on the table in front of him.

The man took liberties, that was for sure.

He also didn't seem too fond of the feds.

J'onn smiled politely, trying to keep his composure. But Alex saw the vein in his neck pulsing. It was almost amusing, if she didn't know any better. Watching the two men sitting at the table, facing each other. It was almost a stand-off.

"I believe the chief of police gave us quota for joint taskforces, Lieutenant. This seems like the perfect opportunity for some interdepartmental bonding."

The man chuckled humorlessly. "You want me to give you my best detective for a lousy undercover op that about three quarters of your guys are trained for, Henshaw?"

Alex felt a sense of pride at hearing the words.  _Of course_  Maggie would be the best at her job.

"We only want the best." J'onn concluded. And with that, it seemed like the conversation was over. The Lieutenant got up from his chair, and glanced up at Alex for one second, before focusing back on J'onn.

"Guess there's nothing I can do if Sawyer wants the op. But if I hear that you offered her a job, or that she wants to come work for you guys anyway… This is over."

After that, the man stalked out of J'onn's office, leaving behind the two dumbfounded agents.

"Well…" Alex started. "That guy's a douche."

J'onn seemed skeptical. "Did you prefer Cooper?"

The hair on the back of Alex's neck stood up at the sound of Maggie's former boss' name. That man had been the absolute devil in disguise.

Compared to him, this guy was a cakewalk.

"It shows that he's protective of her. Makes him a good cop in the long run." J'onn said, getting up from his chair. He eyed her carefully. "What about you, Alex, you alright?"

"Are you asking if I'm okay with all of this? Because you know my answer." Alex grunted. "I think her boss is right. There's an entire building full of competent agents right here."

"We need a woman."

"I know that. There  _are_  competent women in this organization."

"I'm not saying there aren't." J'onn crossed his arms. "But the only person with previous undercover experience here that fits the part is you."

"Then let  _me_  do it!"

"You are the assistant Director, the second in command and the lead on field missions. I can't send you off to an undercover operation when we don't know how long it'll take."

Alex pinched the bridge of her nose. She  _knew_  J'onn was right.

Between her and Maggie, her wife definitely was the better fit for the operation.

Of course, that did less than _nothing_  to ease her mind. If anything, it made it worse. Because the uncertainty about the operation, about the cover…

"I asked her to come over. She'll be here in an hour. Can you try and get our…  _guest_  to talk?"

"I'll see what I can do." Alex nodded, as she walked out of the room with big strides, and headed downstairs, to the prison cells.

It had all gone  _really_  fast. That morning, the NCPD had been on edge because of a man, standing in the middle of a plaza downtown and screaming hysterically about some alien that was going to prevent the world from ending, saving all of humanity if they wished to be saved.

Of course, the majority of the civilians that had heard him brushed it off and ignored him, branding him just another crazy idiot. But he obviously wasn't in the right mindset, and was arrested.

The science division was brought in, just to be sure that he was just crazy, and not actually on to something. But when they had talked to him, he'd stuttered a half-coherent explanation about a cult in the desert, where an alien lived along with humans that idolized him.

Maggie had picked up on the case, and had informed Alex of the guy's story right away. Not even ten minutes later, there was a black SUV parked outside the precinct, ready to escort the guy to the DEO building.

If anything, Maggie's boss was probably just pissed that the DEO had once again taken a big case from underneath him.

Based on what they knew, Kara had done a quick scouting, and much to everyone's surprise, confirmed his story.

In the desert, about fifty miles away from National City, there was a small town, isolated from the rest of civilization. Just as he'd said.

Alex entered the med bay, where the man was sent to get a full body scan. The medical staff had assured J'onn and Alex that the guy was in fact human, and not injured or sick in any way.

Just in shock, and probably horribly traumatized. He hadn't said a word since his explanation back at the precinct. Alex assumed that his body had shut down. But she needed more.

If either of them were going to risk their life heading into a cult lead by some psycho alien that thought he could control and manipulate humans, she needed all the intel she could get.

"Hey." Alex said as she entered the med bay. She glanced at the other medical personnel in the room, who got the hint immediately, and walked out.

Leaving her alone with the man sitting upright on the stretcher.

"It's okay, sir. You're safe here. Nobody's going to hurt you."

Somehow, the man didn't look convinced. This was the first close-up look Alex had gotten ever since they'd escorted him into the building. He had black, short hair, and dark brown eyes. Hauntingly dark, like they'd seen the terrors of the world. He couldn't be older than 25.

"My name is Alex. Can you tell me your name?"

She tried to look as compassionate as possible, and restrict her hand gestures to a bare minimum. Sudden movements would only make it worse.

"D- _Dorian_."

She hadn't expected him to talk so soon. But she smiled weakly as she looked at him. "Hello, Dorian."

"Did you get him?"

A loaded question. But Alex shook her head, deciding that telling him the truth would be better in the long run. "We're going to get him. But to do that, we need you to tell us what exactly is going on there."

At the man's wince, she continued. "I know it's painful. But we need to know what  _you_  know, if we want to take him down."

Dorian nodded weakly. "I'll… I'll tell you everything."

* * *

 

"Hey, J'onn." Maggie greeted him as she entered his office. "Why did you want to see me?"

"Take a seat, Maggie."

The detective frowned, but complied nonetheless. She hadn't been in J'onn's office all too many times before. Usually things were run from the command center. She knew that both Alex and J'onn were barely in their offices, as they preferred working in their labs or out in the field.

This was new.

"What's going on?" She asked, tilting her head in confusion. "Did something happen?"

J'onn's serious look told Maggie all she needed to know. "Is it Alex? Is she hurt?!"

She'd just talked to her a few hours ago, but she knew a lot could happen in that time…

"Alex is fine." J'onn raised a hand quickly. "Everyone's okay."

Maggie sagged slightly, trying to cover up how worried his words had made her.

"We talked to your boss about the guy you handed over to us this morning."

The detective nodded slowly. Was she about to get fired? Did she make a mistake?

"Your boss has agreed to another joint taskforce between the NCPD and the DEO."

"Which means…?" Maggie had been on a few DEO missions before, but that hardly counted as a joint taskforce. The most they'd done besides that was share files with the DEO and tell them about new species or abilities they'd discovered.

J'onn opened his mouth, but the door behind Maggie opened, prompting her to glance back.

Alex walked inside, in her black DEO gear, and nodded at the two of them, bringing her hands to her hips as she moved to the table.

Maggie didn't expect Alex to greet her in any way less formal or professional than she was doing now, as they'd both agreed that they had to keep their PDA to a minimum when they were at work. God forbid one of those aliens got the wrong idea.

But this, this was all-out Agent Danvers. Professional, stoic, and factual. The one that meant business.

So, Maggie went all-business too.

"What is it?"

Alex took point. "The man that was transferred here. He told me everything he knew about the cult."

"… We're going to set up an operation to dismantle the cult and apprehend the alien leading it." J'onn supplied.

Maggie nodded slowly, as she watched Alex take a step forward and move to cross her arms. "According to the guy, the alien is dangerous. So we have to take him down."

She could already picture the fit her Lieutenant had thrown. Greene  _hated_  undercover operations. Probably some kind of trauma from something that went bad back in his day. Maggie didn't know, and honestly she didn't care either.

"I want it." Maggie said, immediately. When she saw Alex's frown, she backtracked instantly. "I mean, if  _that's_  what you're asking me."

"It is." J'onn nodded. "So, you're volunteering?"

Alex flinched. But Maggie didn't notice, and nodded.

"I've done undercover ops before."

"Only one day at a time." Alex interjected. Maggie glanced up at her wife, but Alex didn't seem defensive or angry.

She seemed…  _sad_.

"I'll be straight with you, Maggie." J'onn looked her in the eyes. "We need a woman to infiltrate the cult, get intel on the alien, try and identify it, and report back. For as long as it takes to build a case."

Maggie nodded. "I'm in, J'onn."

Alex sighed to her right, apparently giving up whatever emotions she had building up, and lowered her arms. "We need to get started as soon as possible, in case the alien hears about the leak and does anything stupid. I'll brief you on everything we know."

"I'll tell your Lieutenant that you took the op." J'onn said, moving to his telephone. Alex moved to the door, and Maggie got up and trailed behind her.

"Hey, you okay?" She asked, when she saw the conflicted look on the agent's face. Alex snapped out of her thoughts, and looked up quickly. "Yeah, yeah. Just…"

"… You didn't want me to take the op."

Alex shook her head. "It's… Stupid. You're the only one qualified to do it."

"What about you?" Maggie stopped walking, and tilted her head to look her wife in the eyes.

Alex grunted. "I'm needed here. I can't be in deep when the DEO gets raided, or something goes wrong."

Maggie noticed the look on her wife's face, and searched for words. "Alex, what you think  _matters_ , okay? I know what you're feeling, and I understand. But… if the roles were reversed…"

"I'd want to take it too." Alex chuckled weakly. "I know."

"Are we okay?" Maggie asked.

"Yeah. We are." Alex confirmed quickly. "You have my blessing on the mission. But on one condition – and J'onn knows about it."

"Which is?" Maggie raised an eyebrow.

"I need to be your handler. You're checking in with me, as much as you can, and I'm guiding you through it."

"I can live with that." Maggie smiled. If that was the one thing she could do to ease Alex's mind, she'd gladly take it.

"You'd better." Alex wrapped an arm around Maggie's waist, and pulled her into a side hug. "Just promise me that you won't do anything stupid."

Maggie laughed. "Me? I'm not the one that had to be pulled out because she couldn't stop laughing at her target's  _laugh_ , Danvers."

"Hey!" Alex defended weakly. "He sounded like a  _canary_ , Maggie! I couldn't help myself."

"Tax dollars, hard at wor-…" Maggie cut herself off when she felt Alex elbow nudging her in the ribs.

Once their laughing had died down, Maggie grew serious again. "I can take it, Al. Besides, if anything goes wrong, you'll be there."

"In a heartbeat." Alex smiled, before she put both hands on Maggie's cheeks, and pulled her in for a deep, lingering kiss.

When they pulled back, Maggie did her signature head tilt as she glanced at her wife. "But if I am going to be living in the desert for the next couple of days, I'm going to need you to buy me dinner first."

"Really?" Alex smirked, raising an eyebrow in challenge.

"Yes,  _really_." Maggie repeated. "I am  _not_  going in there until I've had my Last Supper with crappy wine and great company."

"Guess I'll go have to look for some, then."

Maggie watched Alex walk off ostentatiously after her comment, and rolled her eyes. "You're such a nerd, Danvers."

"Don't pretend like you don't like it!"


	3. Chapter 3

"They call him 'The Shepard'." Alex said, as she revealed a quick computer-generated image on the monitor in front of them. He looked human with a long, white beard. The only thing that didn't fit the picture was the long scar, dragged diagonally from his right eyebrow to his lip. Almost like a sword had cut right through his face.

Alex continued. "He rarely dwells amongst the rest of the town, only when they pray to him – which is about five times a day – and on special occasions. Looks like there are about 80 people in the cult."

"I'm still not seeing why you need an undercover op here." Maggie's boss, sat next to the detective, folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. "You could easily get some drones flying over, confirm that it is indeed a cult, and raid the place."

"That would cost us at least twenty men, a lot of equipment and would be a huge risk." J'onn answered from his spot at the head of the meeting table. "Sending in one person that can really build a case from the inside is much more efficient, and will make us look good in court."

"So, you're going to let the bastard rot in alien jail? How about you just shoot him through the head for brainwashing all those naïve bastards?!"

"How about we let them finish briefing before we jump to conclusions, and not forget that it isn't  _our_  case, Lieutenant." Maggie glared at him from her seat on the opposite side of the table.

Greene didn't seem satisfied, but settled back in his chair. Alex shared a quick look with Maggie, before continuing. "From what Dorian told us, life is very monotonous and involves a lot of routine. Getting up, praying, breakfast together, praying, working, praying, and so forth-…"

The police Lieutenant interrupted once again. "Why did the guy leave there anyway? Usually, people don't exactly walk away from religious cults. And the ones that do don't make it to National City Plaza to scream about it."

"We haven't exactly gotten that out of him yet." Alex said, truthfully.

Greene chuckled dryly. "So you don't know why they let him walk, or why he ran off? If the guy was  _that_  brainwashed, but still thought that whatever was going on was a bit  _too much_ , then I'm glad you're deciding to send someone in to join the party!"

"Enough." Maggie shut him down. She knew that she was playing with fire, yelling at her boss. But she was getting tired of Alex not being able to speak three words without him interrupting her with that arrogant smirk.

She knew Greene had a fair point. Not knowing the complete situation wasn't good if she was going to go in. But laughing in their faces and getting angry wasn't the way to go, at all. They needed to work together to get as clear of a picture as possible.

She saw Alex drumming her hand against her own side – a habit Maggie had noticed whenever she was incredibly annoyed but couldn't show it. Next to her, her Lieutenant had gone silent after her shutdown. But now, he was glaring at her.

"… If you want to run head-first into danger like a sociopathic maniac, by all means, be my guest, Sawyer. But it won't be on my command."

"Whatever happened to you during an undercover op that makes you so paranoid about even coming near them, I'm truly sorry that happened, Jeff. But this is  _serious_ , so can we please move personal feelings out of the way and  _focus_?!"

Alex and J'onn shared a look, bracing themselves. Maggie had been out of line, and everyone in the room knew it.

Including Maggie herself.

But she wasn't backing down.

"This  _fucking_ bureaucratic tug-of-war that you're playing, is distracting  _everyone_  from the fact that I'm about to head into deep cover with an alien that could have me  _lynched_  by his entire following if he found out the truth about me! So either get your head out of your ass, and  _help_ , or leave!"

Greene stared her down coldly, before getting up and walking out of the room without another sound. When the door fell shut behind him, Maggie buried her head in her hands. "Shit...  _shit_."

"Maybe we should take five." J'onn said. But the detective looked up quickly. "No. Just… continue. Please."

Alex took a deep breath, and continued the briefing.

* * *

  **PRESENT**

 

"She's just in shock."

Alex bit the nail of her thumb – a habit she only got into when she was hysterically nervous – and tried to ignore how much her heart was pounding. The scene from not even an hour ago, with Maggie being alive in an entire forest full of dead people, was still burned on her retinas.

They hadn't wasted any time in pulling Maggie into the chopper and flying her back to the DEO, where she was immediately wheeled into the med bay for tests.

Alex sighed in relief at hearing that Maggie wasn't actually physically hurt. That she wasn't going to die any time soon. She looked up at Hamilton, and watched the woman take a seat next to her.

"I should have never let her go." Alex whispered weakly.

Amelia shook her head quickly. "You couldn't have known…"

"It looks like a fucking  _mass suicide,_  Amelia." Alex looked down. "We should have gathered more intel, we should have  _waited_ …"

"'Should have, would have'… You can't blame yourself here, Alex."

"She went radio silent  _24 hours ago_. If I'd done something sooner…"

"Stop it." Amelia grabbed the agent by the shoulders. "We're not doing this. Not playing the blame-game. Maggie is going to be fine."

" _Ma'am_?" Johnson, one of her fellow agents, approached her. Alex tried to compose herself quickly, wiping at her cheek with the back of her hand. But the man didn't seem to mind, as he shot her a compassionate look. "We've started transporting the bodies here, but the morgue doesn't have enough space."

"What did J'onn say?"

"He said that you were in command."

Alex sighed, rubbing at her eyes. "Clear the training hall. An agent at the door at all times. Once all the bodies are inside, we're going to start matching. You call me when that happens."

"Agent Schott told me he's working on the list."

Alex nodded, and that was enough for Johnson to leave, and continue coordinating the retrieval, no doubt. Amelia glanced at her. "List?"

"All the missing persons cases in a 100 mile radius around the town. We're going to try and see if we can cross-reference. Hopefully give some families peace of mind."

Amelia put a hand on hers and squeezed it gently. "Give yourself some peace of mind first, Alex."

"Yeah, I know." Alex flashed a quick smile. "I want to make sure she's okay first."

The doctor pulled her up, and lead her into the med bay, where Maggie was sitting upright on a bed, being scanned by a medic in a DEO-issued lab coat. He nodded politely when he saw the two of them enter.

Alex moved to her wife's side immediately, and carefully reached for her cheek. Maggie didn't respond in any way, so she ran the back of her index finger across her face. "I'm here, babe."

Upon Alex's touch, the agent saw Maggie's eyes move up to look at her. Alex retracted her hand instinctively.

Just in time for Maggie to lurch forward with a loud gasp, almost doubling over. Amelia and the other doctor rushed forward to help, but Alex beat the both of them, grabbing Maggie by the shoulders and steadying her before she fell off the bed.

The detective's wide eyes darted around the room, until they settled on Alex. A few seconds later, Alex began to see recognition appearing in her wife's eyes.

Maggie's expression went to angry instantly. "Did you pull me out?!"

Alex hadn't expected the accusation, and frowned. But Maggie didn't leave her any space to explain, as she moved forward to jump off the bed. "I was  _onto_  something, Alex!  _Fuck_ , what did you do?!"

"Mags, we found you-…"

"I almost  _had_  it! They were telling me about-…"

" _Maggie_!" Alex raised her voice, grabbing her wife by the shoulders once again. "When we found you, everyone was dead. You were in that forest, at the stones, and you were the  _only one_  alive and breathing."

Maggie froze completely. "W-what?!"

Alex glanced back at Amelia for a second, before turning back to the detective. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Maggie frowned. "Uh… I was… checking in with you. Talking about what Katherine had told me."

The agent nodded slowly, as she reached for Maggie's hand. "Babe, that was over a day ago."

The other woman stayed silent as she processed the news. "So… e-everyone's dead?"

"Not everyone." The other doctor piped up from his spot near the door. Both Alex and Amelia shot him an identical death glare.

Maggie picked up on the situation immediately. "What? What's going on?"

The man blushed in embarrassment, and excused himself quickly. Leaving the two DEO women to share a look. Amelia read the situation, and walked out behind the man, closing the door behind her to give them some privacy.

"Alex…?" Maggie frowned. "What are you not telling me?"

"…The Shepard wasn't one of the bodies." Alex admitted. "So it's possible that he set something up to get rid of his followers, and fled the town."

Maggie's eyes widened, before she growled in frustration and started pacing around the room. "Why can't I  _remember_  anything?!"

" _Easy_. They probably drugged you." Alex snaked a hand around her wife's form, and pulled her close, running a hand through the woman's hair. "Your memories will come back."

Maggie didn't look convinced. "W-what now? What do we do?"

Alex sighed. "We're going to start matching the bodies with missing persons cases."

"I can help."

"You need to  _rest_." Alex shook her head. "You've been through a lot."

"Alex, I  _know_  those people. I know their names, what they did… I can help you identify them."

Alex fought against the instinct to protest. If they wanted the case moving forward, they needed to identify the bodies as soon as possible. Saving man hours, expensive scans and DNA tests would be a huge leap forward.

"Okay." The agent nodded quickly. "Once everyone is transported, we'll get started. But you're taking breaks, and if I see that it's too much, I'm putting a stop to it."

"Did you miss me?" Maggie asked, completely out of the blue. Alex was taken aback, and scoffed, as if the mere thought of Maggie doubting it was ridiculous.

"Of  _course_  I missed you. Babe, I thought you were _dead_  when I saw you lying there…"

"I didn't."

"You didn't  _what_?"

"Miss you."

"… oh." Alex didn't know in the slightest way how to respond to that. It hurt more that Maggie would bring it up so casually. But she also knew that Maggie was probably still in shock, with everything being dumped on her at once.

"They cut me loose from everything that bound me to my earthly life. That's what they said. That the Shepard would save me."

Alex blinked nervously, unsure about the sudden shift in Maggie's behavior. The detective looked down at her own hands, balling them into fists. "I didn't miss you…  _why_  didn't I miss you…?"

"You talked to me, three times a day." Alex supplied quickly. "You couldn't  _really_ miss me."

"I didn't miss being around you."

"Okay…" The conversation was turning awkward now. Alex folded her arms and glanced down at her own feet. This wasn't how she pictured their reunion, at all.

She wanted to fall into Maggie's arms and cry about how scared she'd been.

Not  _this_.

Maggie seemed to realize her discomfort, and frowned. "I'm… I'm sorry, Alex. I didn't mean to, I'm just-…"

"You're confused, I get it." Alex dismissed it quickly with a weak smile. "Don't worry about it. I can't expect you to jump back into your life after four weeks of… _that_."

"I think it might… take some time." Maggie admitted. "I-is that okay? I mean, I get it, if…"

"Don't finish that sentence." Alex glared. "Don't you dare. We're in this together, Mags. I'm going to give you whatever space you need, and you're not doing  _anything_  until you're ready. No questions asked."

Maggie seemed incredibly relieved, and it saddened Alex greatly. That the woman would have even  _considered_  Alex tossing her aside after such a trauma was indescribable.

"Can I hug you?" Alex asked, now unsure how Maggie wanted to proceed. But the woman smiled, and wrapped her arms around Alex without another word.

They pulled apart when the door to the med bay slid open, and Johnson walked inside. "Ma'am?"

Alex looked up. "Yes?"

"We have a problem."

Alex let go of Maggie, and walked forward to get closer to the man, trying to get back into agent mode. "What is it, Johnson?"

The agent looked at Maggie, and leaned in closer so only Alex could hear him.

"The safe house where Dorian was hiding, ma'am." He sighed. "It's deserted. No sign of him. And the agent stationed out front has disappeared too. The only thing inside was a pool of blood, and the agent's tracker. Someone must have gotten to them."

Alex glanced back at her wife's form leaning against the bed, as she felt her heart skip a beat.

_The Shepard was in National City._


	4. Chapter 4

No wires, no cameras.

Those were Maggie's rules. It was one thing to be undercover with a false identity, but walking around with a button cam meant certain death once she was discovered.

Plus, to her it was completely unnecessary. She and Alex had agreed that she was going to keep a written journal of every interesting detail about the cult, and she was checking in three times a day, on the top of the hour.

Alex had injected her with a subdermal tracker, so she could keep track of her vital signs from a distance via satellite, and had given her an earpiece that she could put in at will, but was small enough to hide somewhere.

She figured that forest would be a good place to have some privacy for her talks, but just in case there was none of that, she and Alex had also figured out a system of safewords and code phrases to communicate with each other without attracting attention. It would simply look like Maggie was praying, or singing.

After her wife was sure that she knew everything, and was fully updated on the little they knew about the cult, she'd looked her in the eyes.

"I  _love_ you. Come back in one piece."

Maggie had chuckled, and leaned in to wrap her arms around Alex and hold her tight.

She was convinced she hadn't imagined the tears in Alex' eyes when she took off her wedding ring for the first time, to drop it in her wife's open and shaking palm.

"Just a couple of days." Maggie had assured her with that dimpled smile. "And I'll have some badass stories to tell; you're just jealous that you won't be the interesting one at game night anymore."

Alex chuckled weakly, recognizing Maggie's attempt to lighten the mood, but didn't join her. Instead, she grew serious once again. "You know wh-…"

Maggie cut her off quickly. "My name is Margaret Cohen, I live in National City, boyfriend of two years, and ready to fling myself at the nearest alien savior. I  _got_  it, Alex. Not my first rodeo."

"I know." Alex admitted defeat, and put a hand on the small of Maggie's back. "You can't blame me for being worried."

"Just like  _you_  can't blame me for doing my job. This is how this works."

Alex laughed, and leaned in to kiss Maggie properly, probably for the last time. Maggie deepened the kiss, and tangled a hand in Alex' hair.

When they pulled away, Alex sighed. "The helicopter is waiting."

"You're not coming?"

"I'm going to stay here and make sure that everything is online. If something goes wrong, we can abort the mission and fix it."

"Well, it's good to be prepared, I guess." Maggie smiled. "Don't worry, babe. It'll just be like that conference in DC you went to. Just… without the luxury of a hotel room."

Alex watched her move to the stairs, before she turned around. "Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone, Danvers. And don't watch the rest of  _Kimmy Schmidt_  without me!"

"Wouldn't dare."

After that, Maggie ran up the staircase, and disappeared out of sight. Alex took a deep breath to calm herself, as she activated all of the trackers and monitors they'd installed.

She prayed to whatever thing above them that would listen, that this would turn out like they'd planned.

_No wires, no cameras._

Wearing an old pair of jeans, and a white shirt that covered as much skin as possible, Maggie was dropped a few miles away from the town.

According to Dorian, the first big step to being initiated in the cult, was to make the pilgrimage to the paradise on your own.

Just a few miles in the desert heat was already a horrible prospect, but Maggie saw the appeal to it – desperate, dehydrated people would do anything for water and shelter. Smart move on that alien's behalf.

"It's 4.3 more miles  _that_  way." The pilot said, motioning in a direction. But all Maggie saw was sand. "Just keep going, and keep that earpiece in until you reach the gates."

Maggie nodded, and pulled her backpack across her shoulders with some bottles of water and granola bars, before motioning a goodbye to the pilot. "See you around, Tommy!"

She jumped the few feet that the helicopter was hovering above the ground, and ducked as it rose up into the sky. As she watched it fly away, she reached for the earpiece, tucking it in her left ear. Immediately, she heard a beep, as Alex had received a notification that she was back online.

" _Maggie?"_

"Yeah, just got dropped off. Have to hike a few more miles through the sand, so just  _distract me_. But tell me when I'm a mile out, I'll disconnect just in case they have any sensors or anything like that."

Alex complied. Keeping her busy, telling her funny stories and anecdotes about her days at the DEO. Winn even joined in at some point, rattling on about the deep mental scarring he'd sustained on a theme park ride when he was seven. Maggie appreciated their efforts to distract her, but the heat and the physical exertion were getting to her soon enough.

" _You still doing okay? You're slowing down, and your heartrate is up_." Alex noticed. Maggie grunted, as she took another swig from a water bottle. "How do people hike fifty fucking miles through this? Half of them must  _die_  before they even get there!"

" _That's probably the point_." Alex explained.  _"But there's no rush to get there; if you want to take a break, you can_."

Maggie glanced around, at the vast emptiness of the desert surrounding her. "Yeah, I'll be sure to stop at the nearest Starbucks and get myself an iced latte."

" _Smartass_."

The detective chuckled weakly, as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. "The sooner I get there, the sooner I can get shade, and food and water."

" _In about one minute, you'll be one mile out._ "

"Yeah, I can see it." Maggie commented, as she watched the walls surrounding the town appear in the distance. "I'm going to switch off the com."

" _Be careful_."

"I'm checking in the second I can, but it might take some time. I think I might miss this evening's check."

" _That's alright. The first 24 hours are a bit wonky, we both know that. Just use your emergency protocols if anything's really wrong_."

After that, Maggie put down her backpack into the sand, pulled out the glasses she was going to be wearing as Margaret, and tucked the earpiece in a hidden compartment inside the left temple.

She left the backpack there, bringing one full bottle of water for the rest of her walk.

Twenty minutes later, she finally arrived at the scrap metal walls around the town. She circled around for a few more minutes, until she finally found the gate.

A man, standing on top of the wall, glanced down at her. "Halt!"

She fell to her knees in exhaustion, and looked up warily, faking desperation. "Please! You have to help me!"

A few seconds later, the gate in front of her was opened. Two men ran up to her, and helped her up by the shoulders, practically carrying her inside.

"Call the Shepard!" One of them yelled. "We have a new lamb!"

Maggie made a mental note of the terminology, as she felt herself being helped into the town. She could feel the blisters at her feet from the strenuous hike, and winced as her feet made contact with the hard dirt road in front of her.

Most of the buildings around her were made from wood or scrap metals, and she saw numerous people going about their business, but stopping to stare at her. There were animals, plants and trees, and even a small river.

That alien really had to be something, if he could conjure all of that up. Maybe a being from another dimension.

She was carried inside of a building by the two men, and placed down onto a bed.

The shorter one looked at her. "Don't worry, you are safe now. He will take care of you."

He. The Shepard, no doubt.

"You must be exhausted after the Road." The other one continued. "Just relax. I'll send in a medic to take a look at you."

"What's your name?"

"M-Margaret." Maggie replied in a small voice.

"My name is Evan." The shorter one replied. He didn't look a day over twenty. "If you need anything, just yell my name."

She was left alone in the small hut after that, and looked around. A bed, a table with chairs, and a few cupboards that looked handmade.

Well, it certainly wasn't the hostile entry she'd prepared for. If anything, these guys looked legitimately happy to see her.

She was pulled from her thoughts by the creak of the door opening, as a woman stepped inside. Pale, with long, wavy brown hair, early forties – Maggie guessed.

"Hello there." The woman greeted her kindly. The detective now saw the bag she was carrying, no doubt filled with medical supplies. "Welcome to our town."

"What is this place?" Maggie feigned innocence. She and Alex had agreed that her cover story should be her arriving by accident after being lost in the desert. That way, nobody would ask questions about where she heard about the place, or how much anyone outside of the town knew about it.

"You don't know?" The woman asked, as she took a seat next to Maggie on the bed and caressed her forehead in a manner that was  _so Alex_  that it actually made her heart skip a beat.

"M-me and my boyfriend were driving through the desert when our car broke down… W-we got into a fight and he ran off, I've been walking around for days trying to find him…"

"I'm sorry to hear that." The woman pursed her lips. "Let's get a look at you first, okay? Then you can tell me more about your boyfriend."

"I-is this a town? Is there a phone here I can use to call home?"

Testing the waters, trying to see how eager the folks here were to get back home.

Unsurprisingly, the woman shook her head. "No phones, or communication devices here, I'm afraid. We're a bit…  _traditional._ We provide for everything ourselves."

"So, you're Amish?"

The medic chuckled. "Not quite. We  _have_  electricity. But all of our possessions were provided to us by our Shepard."

"Your…" Maggie didn't finish her sentence, as she watched the woman take off her shoes and socks, and hissed in pain as her socks stuck to the blisters on the soles of her feet.

"Our Shepard. He's a God, and we worship him. He created life out of nothingness, and he will shelter us from the upcoming doom."

"What are we talking? Asteroid hitting the Earth? Nuclear war?"

If only Alex heard her now. How dare she insist that they went to improv classes together. Maggie was a  _natural_ , she didn't need classes to play the part.

"The Shepard knows, and will protect us."

So the townspeople didn't even  _know_  what he was protecting them against? Good job in keeping the story vague.

"Evan said your name was Margaret?"

Maggie nodded, and winced as the woman started bandaging her feet. "I'm Helen. I'm the doctor around here."

"Thanks for the first aid, Helen." Maggie replied. "… But if you guys don't have a phone, I'll just need the directions to the nearest town that  _does_. My parents will be worried."

"I'll arrange for you to meet with the Shepard. Maybe he can help you."

"If he could… you know.  _Provide_  a phone. Or a helicopter." She joked. Helen smiled weakly, as she finished checking her over. "Dinner should be served in about an hour, but I'll go see if I can bring you something…"

A knock on the door. Helen's head shot up, as she got off the bed and walked over to the door to open it.

Maggie saw her bowing deeply, and stepping aside immediately, and felt her stomach drop.

"Is this the new Lamb in our flock?"

A tall, gray-bearded yet muscled man, wearing suspenders and slacks, stood in the doorway.

The scar running down his face was unmistakable.

_The Shepard._

* * *

 

Alex supported Maggie's shaky frame, as she pulled the woman to the training hall, still not convinced that this was a great idea.

"Just identification, okay?" She reminded Maggie. "I'm pulling the sheets one by one, you just give me names, and anything you can think of that could help with the process."

Maggie nodded weakly, as Alex braced herself and opened the door in front of them.

Met immediately with the sight of about 80 bodies underneath white sheets.

Next to her, she heard Maggie take in a sharp breath.

_Really bad idea to confront her with the trauma so quickly._

The DEO psychologist would have a field trip with this.

But Maggie walked over to the first body wordlessly, and fixed her gaze on the sheet, as Alex pulled it away slowly.

"Liam. One of the kids, I think he was sixteen." Maggie stared at the teenager's body. Alex wrote the name onto the sheet in black marker.

It looked like that was all she was going to get out of Maggie for now, so they moved on to the second body.

Maggie seemed to know all of them, at least by name. Sometimes, she gave more details, even things about their lives before the cult. But mostly, she just stared at the body with a stoic, distant gaze, and rattled off the facts that she knew, almost like she'd studied them.

The first body that Alex actually noticed something hardening in Maggie's expression, was with a woman's body in the corner of the room.

She saw how Maggie gripped the table in front of them until her knuckles went white.

"Mags?" She asked carefully, not wanting to touch her without knowing that it was alright.

Instead, Maggie took a shaky breath, and ignored her. "Helen. 41. The doctor at the Settlement."

Alex nodded, writing it down, but she saw that Maggie wasn't done. "She was the one who  _baptized_  me."

The agent almost dropped her marker at hearing those words.

She'd never heard Maggie as hysterical as when she checked in just after she got baptized. She hadn't mentioned any details, but Alex had a pretty good hunch that whatever happened, she wouldn't wish it upon her worst enemies.

If the woman in front of her was responsible, Alex was glad she was dead.

Though-  _no._ None of those people lying in the room were actually responsible.

The only one responsible was nowhere to be found, but had taken Dorian. And was no doubt looking for Maggie as well. To finish the job.

But she'd be damned if she was going to let anyone let Maggie become another white sheet in the hall.


	5. Chapter 5

The floorboards creaked underneath the footsteps of the Shepard walking into the hut, and nearing the bed Maggie was currently lying on. She saw Helen step aside to make room for him, her back arching to bow as he passed her.

"What is your name, child?" He asked, in a deep and strangely soothing voice.

"Margaret." Maggie replied, finding it hard to look into his eyes. For all she knew, he could be hypnotizing her the second she did, or form some sort of psychic connection that would give away her real intentions immediately.

But staring down at her bandaged feet got awkward after a few seconds, and he noticed it immediately. "Your feet. They hurt."

Well, it didn't take a genius alien to figure that out. But Maggie nodded meekly anyway.

The next thing she felt was a hand on her forehead. Calloused and rough, but the same comforting sensation washed over her. She felt another hand move down to unwrap the bandages.

"Don't worry, my child. You are safe here. I will protect you. Heal you. Keep you harbored from danger."

"A-actually, I'd just like to find my boyfriend and go home." Maggie pretended to stutter. Any person that didn't know what they were walking into would act confused. She had to play the part.

The Shepard smiled weakly, as he now rubbed his hand up and down the soles of her feet. Maggie winced at the roughness against her blisters, but found that after a few strokes, the pain had disappeared completely.

Flexing her toes and turning her feet, she saw that the rawness had disappeared completely. All of the blisters, blood and broken skin were healed.

"Thank you." She whispered, actually sincere for the first time since she arrived. The man smiled once again. "You are welcome to stay here until we figure out how to get you back home."

That surprised Maggie. She hadn't expected him to let her go so easily.

Though, there was probably more to it.

He put a hand to her knee, and got up from his position on the bed, next to her. "You should get some rest. Helen will take care of you, if you need anything. And I'll expect you at my table during dinner."

Maggie heard Helen's gasp, but ignored it in favor of nodding gratefully as she watched the Shepard walk out of the hut.

As soon as she was alone with the other woman, she sighed. "I could use some sleep."

"Yes, of course." Helen cleared her throat, trying to compose herself once again. "I'll be in my hut, next door. Come knock if you need anything, and if you don't – I'll wake you up for dinner."

The second Helen was out the door, Maggie dropped her head back onto her pillow, and heaved a breath of relief.

That could have gone  _way_  worse.

She reached for the glasses, and fiddled with the lock to the hidden compartment, fishing out the earpiece and putting it in her left ear, the furthest away from the door.

"Maggie, checking in."

The reply was almost immediate. " _Loud and clear. How are you_?"

A weak chuckle. "Pretty good. Haven't been raped and murdered, and haven't had to pray to any alien gods yet. Though I did meet one."

" _You met the Shepard already?_ " Alex's surprised voice made Maggie smile. "Yeah, he came into the hut they put me in to rest. He has some sort of healing powers, he used them on my feet."

" _So, you're safe? He likes you_?"

"He invited me to sit at his table during dinner, and I think that's a pretty big deal from what I can tell. Might be able to get something out of him there. And when I told him I needed to go home, he said that he'd see what he could do."

" _What do you make of that?_ " Alex asked.

Maggie thought about her answer for a few seconds. "I don't know. Maybe he actually only takes in people that come willingly? I mean, Dorian never said anything about being there against his will, and he managed to walk away."

" _Okay, well, voluntary or not – something's really off about the whole thing, otherwise he wouldn't be that traumatized. Play it cool, play the victim, and we'll see how far that gets us._ "

"Roger that, babe."

A laugh on the other end of the line. " _I'm glad you're safe._ "

Maggie glanced up at the ceiling, and took a deep breath trying to distract herself. "What are you doing later?"

Alex seemed to interpret the question immediately. " _Stay here until your check-in later, and go home, take a bath and watch some TV. Maybe order some take-out._ "

Maggie's smile widened at hearing those words. "I miss you already, Alex."

" _I miss you too, Mags. But you're doing great so far. I'm proud of you._ "

A shaky sigh, as Maggie whispered a goodbye and ended the communication by pulling out the earpiece.

The fact that she would be able to talk with Alex basically 24/7 meant a lot to her. Alex being her handler was the best decision they could have made at the DEO.

She could get used to joint taskforces like this.

The exhaustion of the desert hike settled in soon, and she found herself falling asleep, glasses still perched on her nose, as she vowed to herself that she would never take them off to sleep while she was in the town.

* * *

 

Maggie had mumbled that she needed some air, and Alex had let her walk away.

She hated leaving Maggie alone – she  _never_  intended to do that again. Ever since she found her near comatose in that forest, Alex hadn't been able to get the image out of her head. It was burned on her eyelids, forcing her back into that town every time she closed her eyes.

But she'd been gone for more than five minutes, and Alex was getting worried. It was completely irrational and probably highly unnecessary – she knew that Maggie wouldn't be able to walk out of the DEO because everyone was briefed to be careful with her and take care of her. The furthest she could go was on the balcony.

Yet from a distance, Alex could see that the balcony was empty, and Maggie was nowhere in sight. The nagging feeling in the back of her mind made its way to the front, and Alex started running all around the DEO, yelling for her.

"Winn!" She yelled when she passed his desk. "Did you see Maggie?"

The brunette nodded. "Yeah, she went into the bathroom."

Alex followed his headshake towards the door to the women's bathroom at the end of the hall. Alex thanked him over her shoulder, already running into the direction of the door.

She opened it gently, and stepped inside, her heart pounding in her chest. But she sighed in relief when she saw Maggie standing at the sink, washing her hands.

"Hey…" Alex said quietly, not wanting to startle her. Maggie glanced up into the mirror, but otherwise didn't respond to her, and kept on rubbing her hands together.

"Are you okay? I didn't mean to push."

"I'm fine." Maggie replied quickly. "Everything's okay."

She couldn't have been further from the truth, and everyone in the room knew, but Alex chose not to respond to it. Instead, she locked the door to the bathroom with her override code to have some privacy, and took a tentative step in her direction.

"Do you feel dirty?" She asked, as she watched Maggie continue to scrub her hands. She'd been doing it for the past minute, surely by now she could start rinsing her hands with water.

Maggie glanced up in the mirror once again, to the spot where Alex had stood earlier, and continued scrubbing quickly.

"Mags, you're rubbing your skin raw, you're clean.  _Please_." Alex whispered the last part, seeing how red and angry her wife's hands looked underneath the foam of the soap.

Another glance up. But no stopping.

"If you want me to leave, I'll go. But don't shut me out. A-and if you feel like you can't talk to me, just, please talk to  _someone_."

Abruptly, almost like she'd only then snapped out of her daze, Maggie turned on the faucet and started rinsing off her hands. Alex felt herself calm down slightly at the sight. But Maggie's face was serene and calm, not angry or traumatized.

Maybe this was the silence before the storm. Maggie had never been quiet when angry, she was always vocal when she was displeased about something, especially when she was furious.

But this – the silent, composed woman in front of her – something had changed her. Because there was no way that Maggie was as alright as she let Alex show.

Without another word, Alex watched her dry off her hands with some paper towels, and walk to the door, stopping just to glance at Alex.

Though it felt more like she was looking next to her, or slightly away from her.

"Can you open the door, please? I'm done."

Alex stepped aside, but stopped before she reached the touchpad on the wall. She couldn't find words to tell Maggie what she wanted to say, but she didn't need to. Because Maggie sighed and finally looked her in the eyes.

"I'm sorry, Alex. I didn't mean to scare you. I just… I'll explain, okay? Just… Not now."

"Of course." The agent replied hoarsely. "I- I get it, Mags. No pressure."

A weak smile. "Now can you let me out? I want to get back to ID'ing."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Alex said, as she overrode the door lock, and watched as it swung open by itself.

"I feel fine, Alex. Don't worry. We need to get back to work."

And with another final stray glance to Alex's right, she left the bathroom.

Alex watched her go with a confused frown. Maggie was never really one for extreme personal hygiene. She took a shower or a bath every day, but Alex rarely saw her actually wash her hands when it wasn't necessary. Maggie wasn't a neat freak in the slightest.

But what she'd just seen was absolutely terrifying. It was the first time Alex actually felt like she'd said goodbye to Maggie a month ago, and got back a woman that she didn't recognize anymore. Almost a completely different person.

As she turned to walk out the door herself, she noticed something else.

Behind her, to the right, was a clock on the wall. Ticking away the seconds.

_That_  was what Maggie had been looking at every other word, glancing up from scrubbing her hands. The time.

The thought unsettled Alex deeply.

_Just how badly did they brainwash her?_

As she ran back into the training hall, she already saw Maggie standing next to a body, writing down the name with the marker Alex had been holding previously. She walked up to her, and stopped next to the body. It was a woman, in her thirties, with a freckled nose and long blonde hair.

She watched as Maggie reached down with a shaking hand to caress the woman's cheek. Oddly enough, in any other situation, Alex knew she would have felt a twinge of jealousy at the gesture, but this felt completely different. Maggie looked at the woman below her with such an unreadable expression, that it actually gave her chills.

But as her wife looked up, and their eyes met, Maggie spoke again.

"This is Ada."

_Ada –_ Maggie had told her all about Ada. Ever since the first time they'd met, on Maggie's first day in the cult, at the Shepard's table.

 

* * *

 

"His table is the one in the back, you'll see. Don't do anything he doesn't ask you to, and don't ask questions." Helen briefed her in a rushed voice, but Maggie sensed another emotion behind the whispers. Jealousy.

It was obvious that Helen had been longing for a one-on-one with the Shepard for a long time.

Maybe in more ways than one.

"Thank you, for everything." Maggie said, as Helen stopped to take a smaller road off the main street. The woman smiled weakly. "Good luck. Don't disappoint him."

The sound of chatter became louder, and Maggie could see the dining area appearing in front of her. Long tables and benches, almost like picnic tables standing in the middle of the sand. Though they were in the middle of the desert, the heat wasn't unbearable. It probably cooled down a lot at night.

"Margaret!" She heard the deep voice before she saw the man it belonged to, and noticed that everyone sitting down and eating had gone quiet to stare at her.

New people probably weren't all that common.

The Shepard was standing at the head of an oval table in the back, the only table made out of stone, and with actual chairs. And he was smiling at her.

The only seat not occupied at his table was the one to his left, she noticed immediately.

"Everyone, this is Margaret." He announced, through the silence of the staring people. "She'll be staying with us for a while."

The silence continued, and was turning extremely uncomfortable. Maggie fiddled with her glasses nervously, and recognized it as a move that Kara often pulled in situations like these. The thought distracted her at least a bit.

"You may proceed." The Shepard said, and the eating and chattering continued effortlessly. Almost as if everyone in the room was a robot, wired to obey his every command.

Maggie made her way over to the table, and watched as the Shepard pointed to the empty chair. As she pulled it back, she was stopped by the man putting both hands on her cheeks. The move surprised her, but she let it happen, as she felt him kiss her forehead.

The rest of the people at the table didn't respond to it, so Maggie took a seat without asking questions.

"I truly apologize. This must all be so overwhelming to you."

"It's fine, sir." Maggie said politely. Until he would explain to her what exactly this was, she couldn't go wrong with being polite and ignorant.

"I built this town." He said proudly, as he reached for a plate and began to fill it with the food in front of them. "I called it 'the Settlement', because I wanted people to come here and feel safe, feel at home."

"Well, these people seem really comfortable." Maggie replied as she glanced into the crowd.

The Shepard chuckled, before he seemed to realize that they weren't alone. "Oh, where are my manners. Everyone – this is Margaret. She was found at the gates a few hours ago."

Maggie looked around at the table's occupants. Three women and a young boy that looked like he'd been raised to be polite and not ask questions. He didn't look older than ten.

The Shepard pointed to his right. "Margaret, this is my wife Elise."

Elise nodded at her, and Maggie noticed how she put a hand on the Shepard's thigh protectively.

He continued around the table. "My wife Tess."

_Oh. That_  kind of cult.

Maggie kept her polite smile plastered onto her face and nodded meekly at the introductions.

"My wife Ada…"

The blonde haired woman was the first one to really acknowledge her with a laugh.

"… and my son Eden."

The boy looked up when his name was called, yet didn't look Maggie in the eyes.

When the introductions were over, the other four people at the table went back to eating. Only Ada's eyes stayed on Maggie with a curious raised eyebrow.

The Shepard put the plate of food in front of her. Maggie wasn't all that hungry, but she realized that she was supposed to have been walking for hours and hours before she arrived, so she started eating quickly, trying to seem desperate.

When she was sure she'd sold it, she relaxed, and tried to enjoy the food.

"So, tell me about yourself, Margaret."

"I live in National City, with my boyfriend Winn."

Just saying the words 'Winn' and 'boyfriend' in the same sentence felt weird, though she and Alex had agreed it was best if she actually had a tangible person to work off of.

Neither of them had told Winn about it, as they were sure they'd never hear the end of it.

"He works in IT. I am a receptionist." Maggie continued. "We were on our way to a weekend getaway when our car broke down."

"I'm sorry to hear that." The Shepard said, and Maggie saw sincerity in his eyes. "Is he alright?"

"We fought and… I lost him. We got separated… I ended up here, I don't know where he is."

The Shepard got up from his chair, and Maggie physically recoiled at the action. Immediately, a man had run up to him, and listened as the Shepard whispered something in his ear. A quick nod, and the man ran off.

"He'll go fetch a team of guards to go look for your boyfriend and the car."

_Shit_.

She nodded gratefully, and faked a sigh of relief. "Thank you, sir."

"You are welcome, Margaret. And you are welcome to stay here for as long as you need. Though I'm afraid there may be some… complications."

"… oh?"

The Shepard leaned in closer. "You see, I've done a lot for this town, and for the people that live in it. And because of that, they have…  _developed_  this thing where they pray to me, and kind of see me as a god."

Maggie nodded slowly, trying not to show the confusion she was feeling. Why would he tell her about the worship if he wasn't the one to instigate it? Was he a  _victim_ , didn't he want to be worshipped?!

"… Because of that, they've made certain  _rituals_  that involve new people entering our town. I'd really appreciate it if you went along with it, should they ask you to participate. Don't worry – I'll make sure that you're back home in no time."

After that, he leaned back as if nothing had happened, and smiled. "More wine, anyone?"

The rest of the dinner was spent in silence on Maggie's part, as she observed the people around her. There were women with children – babies, teenagers – and men. A mix of races, body shapes and ages.

And the table she was sat at was even  _more_  interesting. She noticed that the first wife, to the Shepard's right, Elise, seemed to be the one in charge. The others went quiet immediately as soon as she opened her mouth, and when she got up from the table, the rest of the tables glanced up too, just like they'd done with the Shepard.

But as soon as he and Elise had excused themselves, and taken the boy, Eden, with them, Maggie was left with the other two women.

"You must feel really special, dining with the Shepard on a night like this." The second woman – Tess, Maggie remembered – said.

But before she could reply, Ada scoffed. "She doesn't know what that means, Tess. She's an outsider."

There was no venom to the tone, and Ada turned to her. "Don't worry. We're not all mindless drones that follow the Shepard's every move."

She reached out a hand for Maggie to shake. "I'm Ada."

"Margaret."

They'd done the introduction before, but this felt much more relaxed and casual. The woman laughed as she flopped back into her seat. "Today's the dinner of wives. Once every week, where everyone honors us, as the Shepard honors us for all we do. He'll be back soon to ask for Tess, and then me."

"To do what?" Maggie asked, though she feared she already knew the answer.

"To try and set forth his bloodline." Tess replied, as if it was absolutely obvious. The woman glanced back at where the Shepard had left, probably already yearning for him and waiting for him to come back for her.

She turned back to Maggie, and eyed her looking unimpressed. "Why would he let  _you_  sit at his table tonight?"

"Well, maybe he's got a crush on her, Tess." Ada replied sarcastically. Tess' head shot up as her eyes widened. "You do  _not_ speak in such a way about the Shepard!"

"And who are you to tell me what I cannot ask him? He'll be  _fucking_  me the same as you in a second!"

Tess grabbed the plate in front of her, and chucked it at the table, the porcelain smashing to pieces against the stone surface. Maggie jumped back to avoid getting hit, and watched as the other townspeople had gone quiet too.

She watched Tess breathing heavily to control her anger, and Ada crossing her arms and looking completely unimpressed. "Did you get it out of your system, Tess?"

The other woman pointed an accusing finger at Maggie, and turned to the crowd. Since both the Shepard and Elise were gone, the detective assumed that she was in charge of the sheeple now.

" _She_  has not been here for longer than two hours, and is already in the Shepard's grace!" She glanced back at Maggie and smiled viciously. "But brothers and sisters, she has  _not_  been baptized yet!"

Ada now jumped up too, a serious look on her face. "Tess,  _don't_."

But the other woman ignored her. "Who volunteers to  _cleanse_  this woman from her earthly bounds and to show her the ways of our savior?!"

A few people raised their hand immediately, but Tess looked past them, to where a woman had stood up.

"Helen!"

Maggie's eyes met the doctor's for a second, but all she saw was hardened determination as Helen stepped forward to the Shepard's table.

Ada put a hand on Maggie's arm, causing the detective to snap out of her staring. The blonde leaned forward, her lips almost touching Maggie's ear. "Do  _not_  get baptized. Don't let them do it."

The words scared Maggie, but she also remembered the Shepard's plea to follow their instructions and not ask questions, and seeing as how Tess got the crowd this riled up to join in their cult – Maggie figured she didn't have a choice.

She needed to get that information, to bring the Shepard down to his knees and get all these people back to their lives, to let them free.

Helen stepped forward and raised a hand. "Do you accept your baptism, sister?"

Maggie turned to her, and walked over to her, putting her hand in the woman's.

"I accept."


	6. Chapter 6

"What do you  _mean_  we don't know who's responsible?! 80 people are  _dead_ , of  _course_  we know who's responsible!"

Alex's shouting could probably be heard all around the building, but she honestly didn't care. She was too busy fuming at what J'onn was suggesting.

Said agents had his arms crossed, and was shaking his head. "You know what I meant, Alex. I mean that we have to know whether this was a murder-suicide, or just a murder."

"Who gives a  _fuck_  what the difference is?! They  _broke_  Maggie, J'onn! They're all dead, and that Shepard has vanished, and taken Dorian with him for talking! He's cleared his cult and he's ready to start over again with new people, maybe even on a different planet. We  _can't_  let him get away with it!"

"Alex, calm down. I know that you're upset, that you want somebody to blame for what happened to her. And I'll be the first one to track down that thing to make sure it never hurts anyone again. But…" He emphasized his next words by grabbing her by the shoulders, "…we need the whole story before we make assumptions."

As much as Alex didn't want to admit it, he was right.

But the only person that lived to tell the tale was Maggie, and it was obvious that she didn't remember anything from the past days. Though Alex knew that her wife would do anything within her power to get justice for those people that she'd lived with for a month, it wouldn't be an easy task to figure out what happened without doing serious psychological damage. That much was sure.

"We need to go back." Alex whispered. "To the Settlement."

J'onn nodded. "Get a chopper, take all the time you need. Get her to tell you stories, as many as possible. See if something comes back."

Alex was already halfway out the door.

Not even 30 minutes later, she found herself on board a helicopter, headset planted on her head and keeping an eye on her wife's form, sitting across from her and glancing down to the desert below.

"You okay?" She'd made herself a promise not to ask Maggie that damned question, because it was such a  _stupid_  question that she herself hated, and her default answer was never truthful.

But Maggie looked up and smiled weakly. "Not at all."

It seemed like she wanted to elaborate on it, but that it was the worst moment imaginable – mid-air in a helicopter where they could barely hear each other over the noise of the blades roaring above them.

The pilot touched down just outside the ghost town, in front of the big gates. Alex took lead, a supportive hand on Maggie's back as she guided her inside. After some last-minute instructions to the pilot, the chopper soared up into the sky again, circling the town to get some more aerial pictures of the site for evidence.

It surprised Alex slightly that Maggie took lead the second they entered the town. It almost felt like a guided tour, with how much the woman was talking about every single building they encountered.

"… This was the Connor family's hut. Their baby was a real cryer, wouldn't stop, not even during prayer."

It all sounded so casual, almost like she was talking about a walk through the park. Like she hadn't witnessed all of them – even the children – murdered.

Alex knew that her shock was still to come. But until it did, she was happy with whatever Maggie could tell them that would help her heal, and catch that Shepard too.

In front of one of the buildings, something caught the agent's eye. A large, metal scale, almost like a statue. Currently hanging completely to the left, but with a lot of random trinkets, objects and trash on top of it.

"What's that?" She asked. Maggie walked over to it, and gently ran her hand across it. "The Shepard believed in the duality of everything. Light and Dark, Good and Evil, West and East…" She caressed the base of the statue, and sighed. "Every day, we all put something on top of the scale. It didn't matter what, small or big. But the next person had to make sure that the scale was balanced again. I guess it was some sort of reminder about how we needed to work together to bring balance to our community, or something like that."

It hadn't been lost on Alex how many times Maggie had called it a 'we' and an 'our' thing, but she assumed it was a slip of the tongue. Maggie had never considered herself a worshipper of that alien.

Had she?

"And what are those markings on the base?" She continued, trying not to overthink her wife's words. Maggie glanced down to see what she was staring at, and chuckled weakly. "That's a phrase in the alien's language, from what the others told me. It means 'North points the star of Truth.'"

Maggie knew that it would only be a matter of time until Alex noticed the last thing about the metal scale. "It's blood."

Alex, who'd had her eyes trained on the stains around the alien markings, looked up to meet her wife's eyes. Maggie had an unreadable expression on her face, but continued anyway.

"One of the trials of the baptism is to give your body to the Shepard by giving blood to his scale. It's poured all over one of the platforms, and it has to be enough to balance the Shepard's blood."

Alex paled. Maggie hadn't told her anything about her baptism, except for the jumbled, non-coherent explanation she'd gotten on her first night.

She'll never forget how terrified she was upon hearing that her dinner with the Shepard hadn't gone as smoothly as they'd both thought it would.

* * *

 

"You shall receive the holy baptism of our Savior! If you succeed, you will receive a blissful and endless life of happiness brought on by the Shepard, as he will lead you towards the light!"

Maggie had trouble rolling her eyes at the explanation. Truly, there was no need for dramatics. They just had to plunge her into water – probably the river- to get it over with, so that she could check in with Alex and get a strategy set up.

Helen continued effortlessly, as if she was reading from a scroll. The rest of the village had gathered around the two of them. Maggie saw Ada standing behind Helen, shaking her head at her. Did the woman look…  _scared_?

"First we must cleanse you from your earthly grime, sister." The woman smirked. "Take off your clothes."

With everyone staring at her? Even the children…?

Maggie figured she didn't have a choice. She had to maintain her cover.

She just hoped none of them would see the tattooed 'A' on her wrist. That would raise questions she didn't want to answer.

As she stripped naked and dropped her clothes to the ground, she felt Helen's eyes land on her body, judging it, scrutinizing it.

She yanked Maggie's arm up onto the bridge over the river. It was wider and deeper than Maggie had thought; there seemed to be a strong current underneath the water's surface. But Helen pulled her to the highest point of the bridge, and leaned over the edge. "What do you see, sister?"

"I see… water?" Maggie replied.

"No. You see redemption."

After that, Maggie felt a push in her back so rough and unexpected, that she flew forward, her hands yanking at the railing to keep herself upright.

She didn't expect the railing to give away underneath her grip.

The plummet down couldn't have taken more than a second, but she found herself submerged completely under the water, and hitting the bottom of the river roughly. A cry escaped her, bubbles rising up to the surface, of both pain and surprise, as the current dragged her underneath the bridge and even further down the river.

She tried to reach for the surface, but the current kept pulling her under. Willing herself to stay calm and save her oxygen instead of panicking, she didn't see the big rock in the middle of the river, coming closer.

She only noticed it when it was already too late, and slammed into it full force, feeling her leg snap as it bent around in an awkward angle.

The scream that she emitted made her lose the last of her oxygen. She wasn't sure this was what Helen had in mind, but surely  _someone_  would have saved her by now if they didn't plan it?

Oh god, she was going to drown.

That panic was the last thing she thought, before she lost consciousness.

And when she came to, her legs still dangling in the water uselessly but her back resting on the riverbank, and couldn't do anything but cough up water, she heard the stern voice behind her.

"Well done. One down, five more to go."

It was then that Maggie realized that they were actually going to try and kill her.

* * *

 

The hike to the garden of Eden was a little over five minutes. Maggie had gone a bit more quiet after her explanation about the scales, she was probably having some major flashbacks. Alex supported her, and had encouraged her to speak out loud about whatever she could. But Maggie had put up walls, from what Alex could see and understand.

"We found you near the altar." Alex said slowly, not wanting to startle Maggie too soon. "You were sitting upright, leaning against the stones. Can you tell me something more about the altar?"

"All the official rituals performed by the Shepard happened here." Maggie said slowly, as she stepped around the stones, brow furrowed in concentration. "His blessings, creations, everything he did."

"Why do you think they would bring you here, all dressed in white? Is that something you've done before?" Maybe some questions would help, Alex figured.

Maggie stayed quiet for a long while, but she kept on circling the stones and staring them down, almost like a hunter circling its prey. Alex watched her and waited patiently, because it seemed like Maggie was getting somewhere.

"Duality." She finally whispered. Alex nodded slowly – Maggie had mentioned that the Shepard liked the duality of things, that it was one of his trademarks. But it didn't help at all.

Maggie frowned. "Something with duality. That's the only thing I can remember."

"It's a start." Alex tried to comfort Maggie with a white lie, but the other woman saw right through it. "It's  _nothing_ , Alex. We can't do anything with that.  _Fuck_!" She yelled in frustration, as she kicked the stones with her foot aimlessly.

"Hey, hey, easy." Alex ran up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, Mags. You don't have your memories, but we'll get them back."

"This was a mistake." Maggie shook her head quickly, thoughts already racing at miles a minute, as she started walking out of the forest.

"Mags,  _wait_!" Alex yelled, running after her. She'd lost sight of her for a second, and now through the thick foliage, Maggie was nowhere to be seen.

As she walked around, yelling her name, she began to get more and more worried, until she finally spotted her wife standing frozen in the middle of the woods.

She sighed in relief and ran up to her. "Mags? Are you okay?"

She received no response, which worried her, as she circled around the woman to face her. Maggie put a hand on her arm the second she stepped into view.

"I remember something." She whispered, not making eye contact with Alex.

The agent waited patiently for Maggie to elaborate. And when she finally found her words, she did.

"We weren't allowed in a certain part of the forest. It was the Shepard's private area."

"Okay…" Alex started. It would make sense that the alien had a private spot where he could relax from a hard day's work of brainwashing and being idolized.

"I think I've been there, Alex."

The agent's eyes widened as Maggie ran into a direction back into the forest after her words, probably leading her to the forbidden part of the woods. There was actually a small fence. Of course, an alien that could conjure a forest out of thin air probably had more tricks up his sleeve.

"How do you know that you've been here, Mags?"

"Because… I  _died_."

Alex was sure that she'd misheard her. But when she saw the tears slipping down Maggie's cheeks, she realized that there was more to the story than she'd heard during their brief radio conversations.

"My baptism… They  _killed_  me. And the Shepard, he brought me back…" Maggie turned to Alex so sharply that Alex was worried she'd gotten a whiplash. "He brought me back from the dead, Alex. Nothing can do that but him."

The last sentence was so heavy, Alex swallowed a lump in her throat, not even remotely sure about how to answer.

"I-…"

"They were right, Alex. He might have been flawed, but he's so powerful. We could never compete with him as humans. We need him on our side."

"No,  _no_  Maggie." Alex shook her head. "Nothing reverses death. That's the one rule of the universe. You weren't dead, you were probably just…  _close_  to death a-and he  _healed_  you."

"They slit my throat."

All the air felt like it had been pushed out of Alex's lungs upon hearing those words.

"The sacrifice of the scale. They slit my throat to get my blood. I bled out. But when I woke up… I was in his hut. He brought me back from the dead."

"How are you so sure that you died?"

Maggie's eyes filled with tears. "Because… I saw Rosa."

Oh  _god_. Maggie's sister. The one that had died in a car accident fifteen years ago. The one Maggie looked up to, the one that had told Maggie through all of her parent's hate that it was okay to be who she was. That she was on her way to pick Maggie up from spending the night at some girl's house when she was rammed off the road and died immediately.

_That_ Rosa.

Alex did  _not_  want to burden Maggie by asking her to tell the story, but hearing about her near-death experience – as horrible and traumatizing as it was – was nothing short of fascinating for the scientist in her.

"Believe me, I was  _dead_ , Alex." Maggie whispered with a dry chuckle. "I guess the rules of the universe don't apply to the Shepard. He's the God we've been reading about in all those books."

_He's just another alien._

Alex really wanted to say it.

But she knew that there were no arguments that could convince Maggie, if he'd arranged for her to be reunited with her sister, and resurrected her.

To her, he was a god.

"He'll find me, Alex."

The agent's head shot up at hearing those words. Maggie seemed calm, not panicked or fearful in any way. Like she'd accepted the reality already.

"He'll come for me, to finish the job. I don't know how I survived the murder, but I won't cheat him twice. If it's his Will that I die, then I'll go."

Alex had been right all along, even though she hated herself for knowing the truth deep inside.

Maggie was gone. This wasn't her at all.

"I won't let you die if I have anything to say about it." She responded. "I love you, and I  _know_  that you love me. And we're going to fight for us, for everything that we stand for. This undercover op didn't change that, Mags. This didn't burn any bridges, we're still together, and we'll make it through this."

"Burn any bridges…" Maggie whispered, repeating the last part silently. Alex nodded. "Yes, Mags. Because I-…"

Maggie interrupted her. "Bridges."

Alex trailed off, completely lost. Was Maggie finally breaking?

The detective's eyes widened. "North Bridge.  _North Bridge_."

"What's North Bridge?" Alex asked.

"I-…" Maggie shook her head. "I don't know. But it's…"

"…Our next clue."

The sound of a snapping branch a few feet away from them made them jump apart. Alex pulled her pistol instinctively, pointing it towards the sound.

Maggie took a step back, being unarmed. Alex had figured that it wasn't the best idea to leave a psychologically traumatized person in charge of a firearm. It wouldn't be the first tragic accident.

Alex stepped forward. "DEO, step into my sight with your arms raised!"

No response. Maggie yanked at Alex's sleeve. "We need to leave,  _now_."

"Why? What's going on?!" Alex hissed through her teeth, keeping her eyes trained on whatever had made the noise.

"I…" Maggie cut herself off when they heard footsteps coming from behind the trees Alex was pointing at.

Without another sound, Alex stepped forward, rounding the tree trunks and raising her pistol. She was wearing a vest; the only thing they could do was shoot her through the head.

As she approached the hidden spot where the noises had originated from, she had one last eye-contact with Maggie, who was literally shaking with fear. Or shock.

Maybe both.

But Alex ignored it, in favor of finally reaching the spot, and jumping in sight, aiming her weapon and yelling loudly.

A loud gasp escaped her as she saw who it was.


	7. Chapter 7

"Oh  _god_ …" Alex whispered, as she lowered her gun to tuck it back in her holster, and ran up to the stumbling man, barely holding himself up against a tree. " _Davies_!"

The man had been a loyal field operative to the DEO ever since she'd first joined. That's why they had trusted him with protecting Dorian at the safehouse.

But now, he seemed to be on the verge of consciousness, his back turned to her. She pulled him away from the tree by the shoulders and spun him around to face her.

His eyes were wide and panicked, and Alex had to use all of her willpower not to turn away at the sight in front of her.

A large gash was slashed across his throat, blood gushing down onto his black tactical gear. It looked like it was still the same outfit he'd been wearing stationed at the safehouse.

"Davies!" Alex finally managed to yell again, as she lowered him to the ground. How he'd gotten there was a complete mystery. They'd heard footsteps, but were they his?

Was something or someone watching them?

Alex decided to ignore it in favor of crouching down to put pressure on the poor man's throat. But it was obvious to everybody around that it was a lost cause.

That didn't mean she was ready to give up, though.

"Maggie! Call Kara, tell her to come here, he needs a hospital!"

Alex yelled it over her shoulder before going back to work, trying to keep the man awake and talking. "Hey, hey Glenn, you're okay. You're going to be okay, just keep your eyes on me."

Davies' mouth moved, in an attempt to speak, but with so much damage, all he managed was a pathetic squeak. Alex shushed him quickly, before shouting again. "Maggie?!"

She finally looked up when she didn't receive a response from her wife. Maggie was standing a few feet away from the pair, eyes wide and trained on Davies' slashed neck.

Alex suddenly remembered what Maggie had told her. The Shepard bringing her back from the dead after they had slashed her throat. The detective seemed frozen.

"Maggie!" Alex yelled, trying to snap her out of it. "Call Kara,  _please_ , we need to get him help!"

"T-the Shepard…" Maggie mumbled weakly, but Alex didn't respond to it. Instead, she threw her own phone at Maggie's body without another word, and focused back on Davies.

"Glenn, you need to listen to me. You need to get back to your wife, okay? You can't leave her, Glenn, you need to come home to her. Just hold on, help is coming."

Alex knew that he was in a bad way. But seeing that Maggie still hadn't moved, she finally decided to take action, and got to her feet. She grabbed Maggie by the front of her jacket and pulled her down to her knees. "Keep pressure. Hard."

She pushed Maggie's hands into the wound on Davies' throat, and kept them there. When she was at least a  _bit_  assured that Maggie was putting pressure, she grabbed her phone from where it had landed on the forest floor, and called Kara.

The explanation was quick and no-nonsense, but it still took a few tries to get Kara to realize that she needed to get down there, and fast. Her sister hadn't known that Alex and Maggie had gone back to the Settlement, and Alex knew that her voice was trembling, and that she sounded unstable, to say the least.

When she hung up the phone after Kara promised her she was on her way, she turned around again to where the man was lying.

Now unmoving, and staring up into the sky.

Maggie still holding the man's ripped throat together with her own hands, her eyes fixed on a spot in front of her.

And Alex realized that they had been too late after all.

Davies was dead.

Somehow, it felt like the man wasn't meant to survive anyway. That he'd been placed there just to make a point – that death was inevitable. That the Shepard was coming to claim Maggie, one way or another.

Alex promised herself not to let Maggie out of her sight again.

So, when Kara landed, rushed and panicked at Alex's garbled explanation, Alex just told her to take the body with her to the DEO, and call the chopper.

They flew back to headquarters, and Alex took Maggie home to tuck her into bed.

But when Maggie disappeared into their bathroom, and Alex heard the faucet running and the sound of scrubbing hands, she knew that they'd just taken a huge step back.

* * *

 

When Maggie came to, she found herself lying on a soft mattress, in a space she didn't recognize. The cement walls around her were stale and uninviting, but the room was clean.

The next thing she felt was a hand covering her own. Her eyes opened a bit more, and she recognized the woman from before – Ada. She was smiling down at her, but Maggie saw the pain behind her eyes.

"I'm sorry." Was the first thing the woman said.

Maggie propped herself up, but dropped back down when she felt the pain running through her body. There was a soreness in her neck, that made it painful to even turn her neck in Ada's direction. And her back…  _fuck_ , her back felt like it was on fire.

"Don't move around too much." Ada continued. "… You're probably still sore."

"What happened…?" Maggie mumbled weakly. Ada ran her thumb across the back of Maggie's hand. "It's over. You're baptized."

Maggie furrowed her eyebrows, trying to remember what had happened. Ada noticed her discomfort immediately. "They gave you drugs. So you wouldn't remember most of it."

"W-what did they do?!" Maggie's eyes widened, as she felt vague memories and pain return to her.

"Shhh." Ada shushed her weakly, moving down to kiss her forehead. "It's alright. You're safe now. They won't hurt you again."

Maggie finally managed to move around a bit more without feeling total agony, and moved to prop herself up against the pillows of the bed.

"We're in the Shepard's private chambers." Ada broke the silence once again. "He helped you… When they pushed the baptism too far. Helen was reprimanded, don't worry."

_Reprimanded_. Maggie scoffed, remembering how the woman had volunteered to make her suffer. "What did they do?"

"The six layers of cleansing, or  _however_  they call it." Ada sighed. "They nearly drowned you in the river, and then they… did some other things."

Maggie realized that the woman was uncomfortable, but couldn't voice her concerns, as she was hit with a flash of memory.

_She was standing in the middle of the town, near the metal scales. Naked, completely drenched, and vulnerable. Helen stood in front of her, the rest of the cult members forming a circle around them._

_Helen moved forward, grabbing Maggie by the shoulders and forcing her down onto her knees. "Shall you vow to sacrifice your life for the glory of the Shepard, so that his Will shall become your reality?"_

_Maggie breathed heavily, her head lolling down to the ground. She barely had the chance to pull it up, before she whispered. "I just want to go home."_

_Her comment earned her another yank downwards, as Helen had grabbed a fistful of her hair. "This is your new home, sister! Shall you give your life?!"_

_Maggie felt a sob escape her. At this point she wasn't sure anymore whether she was playing the part, or just completely exhausted. "Please… please stop this."_

" _I'll take that as a 'yes', sister." Helen smirked, before she pulled her towards a wooden pole nearby. She tied Maggie down to it with a piece of rope, and tugged at it to test its strength._

_Maggie now had her back turned to the woman, so she couldn't see her face anymore. She leaned against the pole with her forehead, and tried to think about Alex to keep her mind off where she was._

_She tried to remember that Alex could be there within minutes if she gave an emergency signal. But she couldn't give up now. Not a mere four hours after she'd gotten there. She was a police detective, damn it. This wasn't her first mission. She'd take it._

" _Sister." She heard Helen say. She was really starting to hate that word. "Will you accept the Shepard as your savior?"_

" _Yes." Maggie whispered, because she knew that it would get her out of this the quickest._

_She didn't see the agonizing stinging in her back coming, originating from a whip in Helen's hand. Across her naked back, she could already feel the blood reaching the surface of her skin and dripping down._

" _Will you give your life for his ideals?"_

" _Yes."_

_Another crack of the whip, another blow to her back. It continued for at least ten more questions and blows, the blood gushing down her back, stinging in agonizing pain._

" _Do you promise to devote yourself and never leave this town again?!"_

_She passed out before she could give an answer._

Maggie gasped breathlessly as she remembered the whipping. She felt Ada run a hand across her back gently, and while her skin was still tender, it should have hurt more than it did.

"The Shepard healed you. He saved you."

"I-I… I need some time alone.  _Please_." Maggie choked, thinking about Alex. She needed her wife, more than anything. To hold her, to kiss her, to tell her that it was all alright. That she wasn't alone.

Ada nodded slowly, and pressed another kiss to the back of her hand, before walking to the doorframe and turning around one last time. "Come out into the hallway when you're ready. The walls are soundproof."

Maggie assumed she was talking about breaking down and crying – that it was allowed. That she was  _allowed_  to show weakness there.

As Ada closed the door behind her, Maggie noticed that she wasn't wearing her glasses. A panic swept over her, before she realized that the pair of glasses was folded on the nightstand next to the bed.

She reached for it, unlocked the hidden compartment with trembling fingers, and tucked the earpiece into her ear.

"A-Alex…?" She whispered, already feeling her emotions rushing back to her, as she vividly remembered how much the beating and whipping had hurt.

Silence on the other end of the line.

Maggie realized that she now truly was alone.

She started crying immediately, bawling her eyes out as she dropped to her knees on the ground. The pain shooting through her was welcomed; it felt like a pain that she deserved. She choked on a frustrated and painful scream, as thick tears streamed down her face.

"…  _Maggie?!"_

She hiccupped, lightheaded at the sound of her wife's worried voice. But she couldn't form words to answer her.

" _Maggie, is that you? Are you okay?!"_

"A-Alex." She finally managed to stammer, reveling in the fact that she was talking to her, that she was there. "Alex, it  _hurts_."

" _What hurts? Maggie, what happened?!"_

The worry in Alex's voice was unmistakable, and Maggie was convinced that she was already assembling a strike team to break down the gate and rush in to save her.

Maggie knew that she was making Alex panic, but she couldn't stop herself from crying hysterically. "Alex, they… They b-baptized me."

" _Babe, listen to me, I need you to talk to me, okay? Focus on your breathing… What did they do to you? Did they hurt you?"_

Maggie couldn't manage more than some mumbled words, because she didn't remember anything but agony and pain, humiliation and nakedness. She didn't want to tell Alex what she went through, she didn't want to lose that last bit of pride she had.

Instead, she panted as she tried to form coherent words. "D-don't… extract. I can take it."

" _Maggie, you need-…"_

The detective cut her off immediately. "I  _need_  to stay. I have to. For them."

" _They hurt you."_

"They don't know any better."

A deep sigh from the other end of the line. Maggie shook her head, the last tears slipping down her cheeks as she felt herself calm down slightly at the sound of Alex's voice.

"Tell me… about your day."

" _Maggie-…_ " Alex started, but she cut herself off quickly, humoring her. " _I… had a training session with some of the agents. Davies and Johnson were trying to team up on me, but I took them down_."

Maggie chuckled weakly. Of course Alex would kick their asses. She didn't expect anything else.

" _And me and Kara are at home right now, watching a movie._ "

"Oh." Maggie hesitated. "I didn't-…"

" _Don't you finish that sentence, Sawyer. You didn't interrupt anything, you were checking in. And for a good reason too._ "

Maggie trailed off, unsure about how to respond. She heard another sigh coming from her wife. " _Just… Stay safe, okay? Check in tomorrow, as soon as you can, but earlier if you're not safe_."

"I love you, Alex."

" _I love you too, babe. And I need you back in one piece, so you do whatever you can to make that happen, alright?"_

Maggie could do that.

* * *

 

"North Bridge."

It was the first thing Maggie had said in a long time. Alex had even thought she imagined it. But as she lifted her head from the pillow, she saw that Maggie was staring up into the sky.

She hadn't wasted any time in bandaging Maggie's hands when she'd emerged from the bathroom, wrapping them so that Maggie couldn't hurt herself any more by scrubbing her skin raw. The detective hadn't complained – she hadn't even said a word – as Alex had helped her out of her clothes, and cuddled up to her in their bed.

"What?"

Maggie didn't repeat herself, but Alex had heard her.  _North Bridge_. That's what she had said in the forest too, before they'd discovered Davies' body.

"What does that mean?" She asked, but Maggie shook her head slowly, like she wasn't even sure herself.

It was something Maggie remembered from last night probably. But without more clues, there wasn't that much to go off of.

She could be talking about a literal bridge. There were some bridges in the Settlement – Alex remembered. They'd crossed some of them earlier. She told herself to get back there tomorrow and investigate all of the bridges in the town.

She glanced back at Maggie, and leaned forward to get closer to her. "What do you need, Mags. How can I help you?"

The other woman swallowed thickly. "I… I don't know."

An honest answer, at least. And one that didn't push Alex away. She could see that Maggie was as frustrated as she was – probably even ten times more.

"The Shepard." Alex started, changing the subject. "… Do you really think that he could save us all?"

Maggie turned so that she was facing Alex, on her side, and looked her in the eyes. "He can save us, because he can destroy us."

At Alex's silence, Maggie glanced up. "I'm sorry, Alex. I don't… I mean, I'm  _trying_ , but…"

"Don't apologize." Alex shook her head quickly. "I know how much you're-…"

" _Well, well, Margaret. You didn't tell me you had a friend._ "

Alex felt Maggie freeze up completely in her grasp, as she herself pushed her body up, diving for her gun on the nightstand.

And pointing it at the man currently standing in the middle of their bedroom.

_He had to be able to teleport._

Alex usually didn't have an itchy trigger finger, but looking that  _thing_  in the eyes was enough to make her absolutely furious. She clicked the safety off, and pointed right at his head.

He glanced sideways at her. "Now, now, there's no need. I'm just here to talk to Margaret, face to face."

_The Shepard._


	8. Chapter 8

"If you even  _look_  at her, I swear to God I'll put a bullet between your eyes." Alex hissed, keeping the gun trained on the man. But he only heaved a big sigh. "Right, Margaret. I assume this is your sister?"

Maggie seemed too petrified to respond. But she didn't need to, as the man chuckled weakly. "No, not your sister. You were sleeping in the same bed."

Alex's eyes flitted from her wife's frozen form, to the Shepard's figure. When he put a step in Maggie's direction, Alex jumped off the bed and moved forward to put herself between him and her protectively.

"I just want to talk." The Shepard tilted his head. "There's no need for violence. I have no interest in fighting with you."

"Stop  _fucking_  moving!" Alex yelled. "Last warning!"

"Or what? You don't even know what I am. Your bullets will bounce off me and kill everyone in this room. Not to mention that I can  _destroy_  you within a  _second_  if I wanted to. Either leave this room so we can talk in private, or I'll remove you."

"Alex."

The agent turned her head upon hearing her name coming from her wife. Maggie was looking right at her. "Please."

Alex's eyes widened at the implication. "I'm  _not_  leaving you alone with him!"

"Did you clean yourself like I asked you to?" The Shepard continued, ignoring Alex's presence in the room.

"Alex,  _leave_."

She realized it was futile, as she had to remember that Maggie wasn't exactly hers anymore.

That Shepard had her as much as she did at the moment.

She lowered the gun and put it on the bed in front of Maggie. Whatever happened after that, she didn't know, as she walked out of the bedroom, and stepped out of the apartment, onto her balcony.

As soon as she was gone, the Shepard turned to Maggie with a smile. "I've missed you, Margaret."

"Y-you know that's not my real name." Maggie finally managed to push words out. The man chuckled. "Of  _course_  it is. Margaret Sawyer, detective for the NCPD. Hunter of aliens, and everything that doesn't comply with Earth's laws and boundaries."

Maggie felt her stomach drop.

"Don't think I don't know who you are. I know  _everything_ , Margaret. You won't escape me."

"Why didn't you kill me when you had the chance…" Maggie swallowed thickly, feeling her heart pounding in her chest.

The man chuckled. "What would be the fun in that? I have  _much_  bigger plans for you. Just know that you belong to me. You owe me your life."

"Then what do you want?!"

The man stepped forward, caressing Maggie's cheek with the back of his hand. "Do you remember our night together? Think about it, Margaret. You and I, starting over again. No followers, no town, none of that. I could give you the world, protect you from harm, you could have  _everything_  you ever wanted."

"I-I want my life here." It was barely a whisper. But Maggie knew that he had heard her.

"I don't need an answer now." He replied. "I'll be back in two days. Think about it."

A compassionate smile, and another caress of her cheek. "I'll be waiting for you. Always."

As he stepped back, Maggie finally found her voice again. "North Bridge."

She saw him tense up, and realized that she was onto something. "Where is North Bridge?!"

"Where did you hear that?" He didn't seem surprised or trying to cover something up, but Maggie heard the slight change in his voice, and reacted. A step in his direction, as she narrowed her eyes. " _Where_ is it."

"I have no idea." He replied. "Two days, Margaret. I'll find you."

"Did you kill that DEO agent?!"

A weak smirk. "He was in my way to take back what was mine. If your wife is in the way when I come back, I won't hesitate to make her share the fate. Remember, you are mine, Margaret."

After that, he disappeared into thin air.

Maggie reached for Alex's gun, and tucked it back into the bedside drawer. Through the open living room, she saw Alex standing on her balcony, leaning against the railing.

She carefully slipped outside through the sliding door and joined her wife, frowning as she saw the lit cigarette between her index and middle finger.

"I thought you quit?"

Alex didn't look up, but took another drag, before glancing down at it herself. "Recent events."

Maggie had only seen her smoke a few times in her life. Mostly when Alex was stressed out of her mind and feeling helpless. When Kara had been on the verge of death after getting stabbed with a kryptonite knife, after nearly drowning in Rick Malverne's tank… When Alex didn't reach for alcohol, she reached for cigarettes.

Maggie wasn't sure which one she hated more.

But she allowed Alex her moment, watching as the agent brought it to her lips once more to take a big drag.

"He left."

"What did he want?"

"To talk."

"About?"

Maggie stayed silent. Alex chuckled weakly, flicking the butt of the cigarette off the balcony and watching it drop to the ground. "I'm going to bed."

"Alex-…" Maggie started. But the agent shook her head. "Don't bother. I'm all for giving you space, Mags. I  _love_  you. But you're not here. This isn't you – and you need time to find yourself again, but I can't be here when you do. It's too fucking painful."

"What are you saying?" Maggie whispered. She  _needed_  Alex.

But she'd hurt Alex. And the woman had every right to leave her behind, if Maggie wasn't who she'd fallen in love with anymore.

"Ask me to stay and I'll never leave again." Alex looked her in the eyes. "But if you can't promise me that you won't  _try_ … then…"

Alex knew she was being dramatic, but she needed Maggie to be straight with her. Though she couldn't ask it of the other woman, Maggie asking her to leave had been a dagger straight through her chest. One that she couldn't take again, if her wife suddenly decided to take a reckless decision like run off to meet up with that  _thing_.

"We're in this together. You and me. And I swear to God I'll be there for you for  _everything_ , but if you shut me out like that again, then I can't help you anymore. I care about you way too much to watch you drown yourself like that."

Maggie took a shaky breath, and wrapped her arms around herself in an unusually vulnerable move.

"Stay. Please."

"Are you sure?"

A single tear ran down Maggie's cheek. "Can we go back to bed? Just… forget this happened?"

Alex sighed. "Do you want to talk about it?"

The smallest headshake, but it was enough for Alex to kiss Maggie's temple, and guide her back to the bed.

* * *

 

Maggie had willed herself to get some sleep after she'd finished checking in with Alex. She was exhausted, and her body hurt terribly. If she didn't know any better, she'd be convinced there was permanent damage to her back and throat. But her own reflection in the dusty mirror in the corner convinced her that it was ghost pain. Pale, shaky and sweaty, but she looked absolutely fine.

The door swung open next to her, and for a second, Maggie thought it was Ada coming back.

But the man standing in the doorway was leaning against the frame nonchalantly. "Margaret? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She replied. "Don't worry, I did everything like you said, I let them do it."

He smiled sadly. "I wish they didn't do it. I'm sorry they did."

"Ada said… that you healed me."

"I did. You were… in a bad way. Your heart stopped." The man sighed. "But don't worry about all of that. Just rest. I'll be there when you wake up, and I'll make sure you get home safe."

Somehow, Maggie believed him sincerely, and crawled back into the bed without another word.

"Why do you have three wives?"

The man stopped in the doorway, and turned back to her. "I don't. Elise is my heart, Tess is my brain, and Ada is my soul. They are all parts of me."

Maggie frowned at the explanation. He must have noticed her confusion, because he continued quietly. "You'll learn in time."

He stayed in the doorway for some time, watching Maggie lie back and stare at the ceiling of the room. "Sleep well, Margaret."

"Thank you, sir."

As Maggie closed her eyes to drift off to sleep, she had to pretend not to feel the man's eyes on her.

The next morning, Maggie was woken up by loud talking in the hallway next to her room. She cracked her eyes open, and had to orientate herself in her surroundings for a second, before focusing on the noise.

"… _absolute madness! That woman has been here for all of twelve hours, nobody even knows who she is?! Where does she get the guts to bring her here!"_

The voice, screeching like nails on a chalkboard, could only belong to Tess. Yet the reply was much more soft and calculated, and Maggie had to focus to listen in on it.

" _Be that as it may, if it's the Will of the Shepard, then what are you going to do? He decides what happens, he could toss you out just as easily if you start to ask questions."_ Elise. The first wife.

" _Then what's your solution? To stay silent, nod and pray, and pretend that you don't feel discarded and rejected?!"_

" _For starters, yes. Ada did not cross a line,_ you _crossed a line in letting her get baptized. You killed her, Tess. It's a miracle he could even bring her back after you slashed her throat. Now he has to keep her here because she knows too much. The drugs didn't work properly, she still remembers things."_

A deep sigh, coming from Tess, as her voice lost its edge. " _Does she know about the North Bridge?"_

" _Not yet_." Came Elise's reply. " _And I intend to keep it that way, so just act normal around her. And stay away from Ada if she's just going to make you mad and jealous. She has as much of a right to claim him as we do, and don't you forget it."_

Maggie heard the clattering of footsteps echoing away from her door.

_North Bridge_.

* * *

 

As she opened her eyes, the sun shining through the curtains of her and Alex's bedroom and feeling her wife's arms wrapped around her, she finally remembered where she'd heard the term before.

_North Bridge_  was the key to solving it all.

But she had to figure out what the hell it meant first.

And she had two days before the Shepard came back to claim her to get it right.


	9. Chapter 9

In the morning, somehow it seemed like none of the events of the night before had happened.

Maggie woke up to the smell of breakfast in the kitchen, and looked up to see Alex standing over the stove, cooking. For a moment, she really didn't feel like getting up.

But the memory of the encounter with the Shepard burned in her mind. He  _claimed_  her as his. He wanted her to be his wife, to start all over again.

A voice in the back of her mind wondered how many women he'd promised the world to.

Elise, Tess, Ada…

All dead in the DEO training room, because they'd followed him blindly.

She wasn't going to let herself become another body.

She was convinced they'd done something to her, to brainwash her. Whatever had transpired in those 24 hours that she'd lost her memory… Something must have snapped.

_North Bridge._

He'd seemed taken aback when she'd mentioned it. She knew that she shouldn't have brought it up, that she should have stayed silent to be one step ahead of him. But somehow, she couldn't help herself when she was near him.

Which was dangerous. Very dangerous. Especially when he'd come back for her.

She got out of bed, and made her way into the open space of the apartment. Alex looked up when she heard her move, and smiled bright. "Good morning."

"Morning." Maggie replied, looking at the kitchen aisle. "That looks amazing."

Alex laughed at the remark. "All yours, too. Take a seat."

"Do you have the paper?"

Alex reached for the newspaper she'd browsed earlier, and slid it into Maggie's direction, before continuing her cooking. She couldn't help but stare at her wife, reading the paper almost carelessly. For a few seconds, Alex felt like she could pretend that the last month hadn't even happened.

That they were still the same as before.

A quick glance up made Maggie realize that she was being watched. "What?" She asked, with a nervous chuckle.

"Just… Happy you're here."

The words they'd exchanged the previous evening hadn't been lost on either of them, but Maggie decided against bringing it up. Instead, she took a deep breath, and put the paper away again, looking up at Alex with a serious look on her face. "North Bridge."

"What do you know?"

The detective frowned in thought. "I heard Elise and Tess talk about it the morning after the baptism."

"The two wives?"

Maggie nodded. "They didn't know I could hear them, they were talking about me. Tess was jealous that the Shepard was acting so interested in me, and Elise just seemed brainwashed with the 'Will of the Shepard being law' and all. Elise told her that I still remembered things from the baptism, that the 'drugs didn't work properly'. And then they talked about North Bridge, and whether I knew what it meant."

"Okay, so it's something that the three wives knew about." Alex recapped quickly, eyeing Maggie to see her response. The detective nodded slowly. "I don't know if Ada knew anything, but it's safe to assume she did."

"… And they seemed really scared that you would know about it?"

Upon Maggie's second nod, Alex hummed in thought. "I was thinking, I should go back to map out all of the bridges in the Settlement, maybe there's something special about them."

Maggie didn't miss the way Alex had phrased the sentence. "And what about me?"

"There are some more tests I'd like to do."

The detective rolled her eyes almost instantly, but Alex was quicker in continuing her explanation. "… Now that we know that there are drugs involved, we need to run a tox screen. There's a possibility that they're already out of your system, but maybe we can compare it to one of the bodi- one of the  _others_." She corrected herself quickly. "Maybe there's a similarity and we can figure out what they used."

Maggie wasn't thrilled at the prospect of spending another day being poked with needles. But she knew that Alex was just trying to understand the situation, as much as she was. So she settled for a small nod, and a weak smile. "Okay, sure."

Alex put down the spatula she was holding to flip her pancakes, and moved over to Maggie's side, leaning down to wrap her arms around her from behind. "Thank you."

"No, thank  _you_ , Alex."

There was no need for more words. They just held on to each other for dear life, and let the hug speak for itself.

* * *

 

"Good morning!" Ada smiled as she saw Maggie pad through the concrete hall, barefooted and disoriented.

"Hey… Can you tell me where I can get out of here? This thing is like a labyrinth…"

Ada chuckled. "It's a bunker, it can get pretty claustrophobic. Don't worry, I'll walk you out. I was just on my way back to the village anyway."

"Where are we then?"

"We're in the forest. You might not remember it from last night since you were pretty out of it, but they brought you here. The Shepard created the forest, and he keeps all of the creatures and plants alive with his own body. Should he die, then the forest dies too."

"Sounds dramatic." Maggie commented.

"Oh, yeah, no, it totally is." Ada laughed. Maggie was honestly surprised at how loose the other woman seemed about it. The rest of the town seemed so brainwashed and hellbent on following the Shepard's every move, but Ada was so down to earth and grounded, even though she was one of his  _wives_. She had  _sex_  with the man, how could she act so cool about it?

Ada lead the way out of the bunker, and into the forest, and patted some dirt off her shirt. "We have to follow the road here. I haven't talked to the Shepard yet, but I don't think he's found you help yet. So I guess you're going to have to stay here for a little while longer. But don't worry – we have food and water. You have a story to tell about being initiated in some weird-ass cult when you get home, and in the meantime you just have to grin and bear it."

"Is that what you did?"

Maggie cringed inwardly, knowing that perhaps she'd crossed a boundary with the one person that she wanted to keep as a friend, who seemed like someone she could trust, at least superficially.

Instead of lashing out, Ada sighed. "It doesn't really matter. But yes – I came here because of circumstances I couldn't help. And… I've been here ever since."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry, or-…"

Ada interrupted her quickly. "No, it's fine. Like I said – it doesn't matter. I'm happy here, don't get me wrong. No regrets. But, you know. I sometimes wonder how things would be if I wouldn't be here."

They were at the edge of the forest, and Maggie felt herself slow to a stop to frown. "But you're his wife, so you must have some privilege at least?"

Ada shrugged. "Barely. Except for having alone time with him, and getting to sleep in an actual comfortable bed in his bunker. Most of the time he's just wandering off somewhere, creating new things for the Settlement, or meditating in the Garden of Eden."

A biblical term. She assumed she was referring to the forest behind them. It would make sense for them to reference paradise, seeing as how the alien had made an oasis of green in the middle of the desert, seemingly out of nowhere.

But she hadn't forgotten about the boy sitting at the table, that seemed latched on to Elise's side. Probably the son he had together with her.

"Is it named after the boy, or is the kid named after the garden?"

"The Settlement was founded around the same time that Eden was born. I don't know – you should ask Elise."

"Do the three of you have some sort of competition going?" Maggie asked, as they got onto a dirt road that lead back to the town. "It felt like Tess was a bit jealous."

"Yeah, she's always been. Don't worry, she's a good person. She'll do whatever she can to help someone that needs it. She's actually the most compassionate one out of the three of us."

Maggie scoffed before she could help herself. That woman did  _not_ seem eager to help out anyone, seeing as how she'd thrown Maggie under the bus the first chance she got.

Ada frowned. "Didn't you see how easy it was to get an entire crowd of people against you? Those people  _love_  her, because she cares for them. More than Elise does at least – she's on the highest horse I've ever seen, gazing down upon them like they're  _her_  servants, not his."

"What about you?"

A careful shrug. "I couldn't really care less about what happens in that town. All they do is pray to him, their entire lives revolve around it."

"Well, then, why don't you leave?"

"It's not that simple." Ada shook her head. "Leaving this place isn't… easy."

"Not easy? What are you talking about?" Maggie pretended to panic. "T-they're going to let me  _go_ , right?! They can't just keep me here!"

"Listen." Ada reached for Maggie's arm to make her stop, and looked around to see if anybody was around them, listening in. When she seemed satisfied, she leaned closer and looked Maggie in the eyes. "This is a  _cult_. Okay? A religious cult, led by someone who has convinced many people that he is the one that's going to save them all once the world ends." She sighed, but continued effortlessly. "They  _baptized_  you. They cleansed you, to them you're now clean as a whistle. What do  _you_  think is going to happen when you walk out right now, to leave this all behind? Don't you think they  _know_  you're going to report this to the nearest police station, or maybe even the press?"

"I can keep my mouth sh-…" Maggie started, but Ada chuckled. "If you believe that, I seriously overestimated you."

She leaned in even closer, so that her lips were almost touching Maggie's. But it didn't seem like a romantic gesture at all, it was more rushed and serious. "Look, the Shepard tells his people that the world will end if outsiders start to know about this place. Because everyone will want to come seek refuge and there will be no more miracles. You have to prove that you're worthy of his attention and care. So once this place gets known,  _that's_  when the apocalypse will occur."

"That's a genius way to keep your people terrified constantly."

Ada nodded, and took a step back to leave Maggie some space. "So you coming here made a lot of people nervous. You  _leaving_  not even a day after will cause people to get restless, maybe even complain. They won't do it when the Shepard is there, but as soon as he's gone, they'll kill you so that you can't tell anyone about it."

Maggie's stomach dropped.  _What had she gotten herself into._

"The alternative is that you stay here, at least until they know for sure that they can trust you. I think the Shepard took you under his wings to show his people that you are not Satan reincarnated, here to destroy the world and end all of them. But his interest in you might run out at a certain point, and you won't be safe anymore."

"What should I do?"

"Stay close to me. I might not be their favorite wife, but I can throw my weight around. As long as you have my protection, nobody will harm you."

Maggie swallowed thickly. "Is that a promise?"

Ada smiled, and Maggie was sure she winked at her. "It's a guarantee."

_Stay close to her._

_She could do that._

* * *

 

As Maggie had feared, the tests were merciless, and boring.

She had to hold still for minutes at a time for all of the DEO's scans, blood draws and various other medical tests they hadn't performed yet. It was long and exhausting, but she knew better than to complain about it. The DEO medics, Hamilton in the lead, were only doing their jobs. Or at least what Alex had ordered them to.

But for now, the tests seemed over. Maggie hopped off the bed gratefully, and thanked the medics around her. Amelia took off her gloves and eyed her. "Alex is still in the field, but she asked me to keep you here at the DEO until she's back – shouldn't be longer than a few hours."

Maggie sighed. She knew that Alex was worried about leaving her alone, and she didn't blame her wife for being worried about her.

Truth be told – she herself was a bit terrified of being alone, just in case that Shepard appeared again and took her  _god_  knows where without anyone knowing about it.

At least the DEO was filled with agents with weapons, with people that knew her and cared about her. That thought comforted her, and she told herself to stay around the site as much as she could in the next few days.

"Can I at least walk around, or…?" Maggie really wanted to go back to identifying bodies. Not that she enjoyed doing it, but she hoped that the sight of some of them would bring back some memories that she'd lost, that could point her in the direction of North Bridge. If she couldn't be out in the field with Alex, she'd do anything she could to at least pull her weight here. She was the only one who could remember what occurred within the walls.

With Hamilton's approval, Maggie changed back into her clothes, and walked to the training hall, nodding at the agent at the door. The man recognized her, and let her pass without a hitch, after promising Maggie that she wouldn't be disturbed unless it was an emergency.

And as she closed the door behind her, for the first time since she'd woken up in the medical bay the day before, she felt truly alone.

It wasn't a bad feeling, but it was eerie. Watching all of the white sheets with lifeless bodies underneath them, people that had shunned her and laughed at her, people that had  _killed_  her. But the same people that had cooked her food, laughed  _with_  her when she'd made a joke, danced with her during parties… The people that had  _loved_  her in that month that she couldn't be loved by anyone else.

She grabbed the marker and the clipboard from where Alex had left them, and walked over to the next body in the row.

As she pulled the sheet, she immediately recognized the old man, and wrote down his name on the sheet, and what she knew about him on the clipboard. A wave of sadness enveloped her – the man had been sick for a while, and the Shepard had even blessed him, knowing that any day could be his last. Him dying from whatever had killed the rest of them seemed so unnecessary, so  _ruthless_.

She put down the clipboard and moved on to the next body.

Before she could pull the sheet up, she heard a rustling behind her. She dropped the sheet immediately, and turned around to gaze into the room, expecting somebody to enter.

But the sound unmistakably had come from one of the sheets.

For a second, Maggie thought that the Shepard was back, and standing right behind her. But her spinning around a few times made her realize that it wasn't the case.

Deciding that it was just her mind playing tricks on her when she didn't hear the noise again, she moved back to the sheet, and pulled it up. She didn't know the woman very well, and it took her a while to remember the name.

Danny? Danielle?  _Shit_ , it was something like that. Dana? Dante…?

_Another rustle behind her._

Maggie dropped the marker, and spun around again, raising her fists in pure reflex, as she knew that her gun was still in the safe back home. She didn't know what she expected, but she was ready to face whatever was happening behind her.

The woman standing upright in the sea of bodies almost blended in with the white sheets around her, her pristine white dress fitting her beautifully.

Maggie's mouth fell open.

She looked confused, but seemed to know what was going on, as her eyes wandered around the room before finally settling on Maggie.

Before widening in shock.

"T-they didn't get you either..."

Maggie's heart stopped.

_Ada._


	10. Chapter 10

"…Ada?" Maggie whispered silently.

The woman smiled weakly. "Maggie…"

Before Maggie realized what she was doing, she'd run into the other woman's arms, and held her tightly. "You're alive…"

Ada hugged her back, and heaved a shaky breath. "I can't believe you're… I…"

Maggie pulled back, and looked Ada in the eyes. "You survived…"

The woman chuckled. "Yes, so did you."

"What the hell did they do?!"

Ada opened her mouth and looked around the room, and for a second Maggie was convinced that she was actually going to get an answer to all of her questions.

But Ada frowned instead. "I… I don't remember."

The detective's stomach dropped. "They wiped your memory too?"

"We were at a… A party? All the townspeople were there…" Ada trailed off, looking nauseous and pale. Maggie only now realized the shape the woman was in, and took her by the hand immediately, guiding her to a bench in the corner of the room. "Sit down, sit down. Are you okay?"

Maggie crouched in front of her, and looked at her with worried eyes. The blonde put her head in her hands, and moaned. "I think I'm going to throw up."

Upon hearing those words, Maggie looked around for anything that could help, and sprinted for a bucket on the other side of the room, coming back just in time to shove it underneath Ada's head, as the woman vomited. She reached for Ada's hair and held it back, stroking her back softly. "You're okay… You're going to be okay."

"It  _hurts_ …"

"What hurts?" Maggie took the bucket and put it down, before taking Ada's hand in her own with a serious expression.

"I feel like I got hit by a truck."

Maggie ran towards the touchscreen mounted on the wall near the door, and sent an alarm to the med bay, knowing that Hamilton would respond if it was about her. She was convinced Alex had given her the lead on anything involving the cult.

She turned back to Ada, seeing that the woman was trying to get up. "Hey… hey, easy. Don't move around, you've been out for at least a day."

"They're all…  _dead_." The blonde whispered, seeing the sea of bodies surrounding her. Maggie nodded slowly. "Yeah. Everyone but the Shepard."

Ada's eyes snapped to her immediately. "He's gone…?"

"He's still around, he asked me to start over with him."

Ada closed her eyes and swayed unsteadily, and for a second Maggie feared that she was going to pass out again, so she ran forward and supported the woman around the waist. She opened her eyes again slowly. "Yeah… We've all heard that one before. It's what he promised  _her_ , and look where it lead."

The detective noticed that Ada was staring at the body closest to her, marked as ' _Elise_ ' in Alex's neat handwriting.

The door to their right flew open, and Amelia Hamilton rushed inside, a first aid backpack slung across her shoulders. When she saw Maggie holding the woman in white, her eyes widened.

"Is she…"

"Yeah." Maggie nodded quickly. "Help me, she's sick."

Together, they managed to get Ada upon the stretcher that Amelia had parked outside, and wheeled her into the med bay as Maggie filled the medic in on the situation.

"It's probably the toxin, still in her system." Amelia pressed her lips together in thought. "We'll take some samples and see if they match yours."

"Just… take care of her,  _please_."

Amelia frowned at Maggie's plea, but then watched as the detective ran a hand through her hair and walked out of the med bay.

Maggie was lost. Confused, dazed and completely  _lost_  because of what had happened in the past ten minutes.

_Ada was alive_.

The one person that she'd  _had_  throughout that month. That had cared for her deeply, that had protected her.

That had  _loved_  her.

And now, she was here, in her real life. About to hear that Maggie wasn't who she'd claimed to be. That all of it had been a lie, a  _cover_. To take down the Shepard.

She sprinted to the balcony of the DEO building, and leaned against the railing, trying to catch her breath.  _How had Ada survived?_

She didn't remember anything either about how the entire population of the Settlement had wound up dead. The only thing she had was a connection to the Shepard that Maggie herself didn't possess.

Suddenly, Maggie felt like she was going to throw up too.

She and Ada had  _history_. Things that she hadn't told Alex about, because she was scared. Because she was embarrassed, and confused, and because it hadn't meant more than just being undercover.

But Ada didn't know that.  _Of course she didn't._

"Maggie?!"

She heard her name being called behind her, and turned around to see Alex running towards her, in her DEO gear and shoving her assault rifle into the nearest agent's hands to have her hands free. Her eyes wide and serious, as she reached her wife. "What happened?!"

Before Maggie could reply, Amelia appeared in the command center, and Maggie rushed past Alex to meet the medic, just in case something was wrong.

Alex trailed behind her closely. Amelia nodded at her, before turning to Maggie. "On first sight, it seems that she was dosed with the same drug we found in your system. Memory loss, nausea… She stayed unconscious far longer than you, though. So her dose must have been higher. Either that, or there were other parameters that we don't know about." She sighed. "Overall, she's doing okay. Better than you when you first woke up."

"What the hell is going on?" Alex now interjected, frustrated at the vague information. "Did somebody wake up?! I thought they were all dead?"

"They were. They  _are_." Amelia corrected herself. "It just seems like one of them wasn't dead to begin with. So we're going to go through all of them again, to make sure that they're all  _dead_ , before any more start resurrecting out of nowhere."

"Who is it? Do you know them?" Alex asked Maggie, a fascinated yet confused look on her face.

Maggie nodded slowly. "It's Ada."

"The Shepard's wife?!" Alex's eyes lit up. "That's perfect, she knows all about the Shepard! She can lead us right to him!"

"I don't think so." Maggie shook her head. "She doesn't seem to remember much more than I did. I'll go talk to her, alright? And see if she needs anything."

"She's resting, I gave her some painkillers, and something that'll flush out the drug as much as possible. It shouldn't take long, but I don't think she's going to be much help. You should go rest too, Maggie."

"Yeah." Alex agreed quickly. "I'll go with you, we can-…"

Maggie interrupted her. "-I don't want to leave her, Alex."

The agent seemed taken aback by Maggie's statement. Sure, her wife had told her about how Ada had protected her, and it was obvious that Maggie was loyal to the woman and wanted to take care of her. But she  _knew_  that she couldn't do anything but wait for her to wake up. She could do that at home too.

Maggie glanced up at Alex. "Can we stay here? I can debrief with you – did you find anything on North Bridge?"

Alex sighed, and looked at Amelia, who shrugged.  _Up to you._

With a quick nod, she dismissed the medic back into the med bay, and wrapped an arm around Maggie to lead her into a small meeting room that had a whiteboard. She locked the door behind her with a tap on the touchscreen, and turned to her wife.

"I combed through the entire town." She reached for a black marker, and started drawing an outline of the Settlement, complete with the roads, river and the big forest. Then, she reached for a red marker and turned back to Maggie. "I found five bridges in the town, four of them were over the water of the river…" She drew four arcs over the water on her map, "…the fifth one was in the forest."

Another red arc, this time in the middle of the forest. "That one in the forest was weird, because it looked completely unnecessary. There was nothing underneath it, and it looked more like a decoration than an actual bridge. Do you think any of the bridges have meaning to them?"

"The one in the middle is the one they use for the baptism." Maggie pointed, remembering how Helen had pushed her down into the water. "… But it's called 'North Bridge', so…"

Alex nodded, pointing to the one in the forest, as the most northern one. "I snapped some pictures, and investigated the area, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. No markings, no evidence around it."

"I didn't know it was there." Maggie replied truthfully. "… So I don't know whether it was used for anything. But Ada will know."

"Right." Alex nodded, feeling relieved at the thought of the woman being there. For the investigation, yes, but also to help Maggie heal. It was obvious that Alex was out of her depth, but maybe Ada could be the person Maggie needed right now.

As much as she disliked the thought of her hanging around another woman, she'd set it all aside if it helped Maggie work through her traumas.

The next minutes were spent throwing arguments back and forth about a possible meaning to the term, and what it could possibly entail. Was it a code phrase to indicate something fishy happening without the knowledge of the townspeople? Was it a secret rendezvous location that only the wives knew about?

But Maggie was soon starting to develop a headache. The rush of everything happening that day caught up to her, and she felt exhausted. Alex noticed right away, and apologized for pushing Maggie's limits, promising her that she'd keep her updated on her investigation.

Maggie had excused herself, and walked back to the med bay, hoping to see Ada awake and talking. And if not – to ask Amelia if she could use one of the beds to take a nap.

Thankfully, the blonde woman was sitting upright on the bed, Amelia talking to her in a soft voice. When she saw Maggie enter, her smile brightened. "Hey…"

Hamilton sensed that the two wanted privacy, and excused herself quickly. Now alone, Ada scooted to the side so that Maggie could get up on the bed next to her. But the detective shook her head. "I don't want to hurt you, or make things worse."

"You could never hurt me." Ada smirked, but then her smile faltered slightly. "So… I assume that this isn't exactly Margaret Cohen's workplace…?"

Maggie folded her arms, and shook her head. "We're in the headquarters of a secret government organization, called the-…"

"- the DEO. " Ada finished her sentence with a chuckle. " _Shit, I_  figured you were black ops, but  _that_  is something else."

The statement confused Maggie. "How do you know about the DEO?"

Ada laughed dryly. "It's not rocket science. Why do you think the Shepard kept on warning the people of his town about outsiders causing the end of the world? He's an alien that's creating trouble, the DEO handles aliens that create trouble."

"That didn't answer my question."

Ada sighed. "I recognized that you were undercover the second you walked in. So I did my best to keep you out of trouble, especially with the Shepard, just in case you did something stupid and uncovered yourself."

"What the  _hell_  are you talking about?" Maggie almost yelled, completely confused at Ada's calm behavior.

Why was the woman not freaking out about Maggie being undercover in the cult? How could she have  _known_?!

_Unless…_

Ada reached out a hand and laughed weakly. "Adeline Collins. Investigative journalist. I've been tailing that Shepard for over two years now, trying to expose him."


	11. Chapter 11

"Bacon?"

"Oh, I'm a vegetarian, actually." Maggie replied, almost mechanically. She was used to picking out her own food, ensuring that everything she ate was in agreement with her diet.

But the woman reaching out a spatula full of cooked and greasy bacon, raised a skeptical eyebrow. "What?"

"I'm vegetarian." Maggie repeated, assuming that the woman hadn't understood her.

"What? What's that?"

Now it was Maggie's turn to sound confused. "I… I don't eat meat."

"No, you need your strength." The woman shook her head, dropping a huge load of bacon on her plate. "Proteins, very important."

"No,  _no_." Maggie shook her head. " _Please_ , no meat for me. Don't you have eggs, or something?"

"Not today, and not for you."

Maggie sighed, refusing to draw any more attention to herself after remembering what Ada had told her about the townspeople. She had to show to them that she wasn't going to end the world. She had to play nice.

So with a quick smile, she turned around and took a seat at an empty table.

Alone with her six slices of bacon.

It wasn't even  _truly_  that Maggie hated meat. But she'd spent an entire summer when she was 17 working in a slaughterhouse to pay for police academy, and she'd honestly  _hated_  the work so much that she swore to herself that she'd  _never_  touch meat again.

But she knew that the woman that had given her the food was keeping an eye on her. And if she dumped the only food she got in the trash, she'd get into trouble for sure.

' _The Shepard has given you this gift'._ She could already hear their shocked voices in her head.

So she closed her eyes, and tried not to think about it, as she put the first slice in her mouth.

Willing herself to swallow it, and take the next piece. After all, the woman had been right. She was going to need her strength.

* * *

 

"I majored in journalism, but one of the extra classes I took was kind of a 101 on aliens. My professor was a cop that got injured in an alien attack in Metropolis and was pulled off-duty. It was super interesting stuff, and I really wanted to specialize in aliens."

Both Alex and Maggie were speechless as they listened to the game-changing explanation of the blonde woman in front of them. A glance towards her wife made it clear that Alex was still a bit wary about the whole situation, but Maggie knew that she would never voice that concern unless she was absolutely sure something was fishy.

Ada continued. "… I got a job working for the Daily Planet in Metropolis, writing pieces on alien activity in the city. It gave me some informants and contacts, and one day I heard about the Shepard and his cult in the desert. I thought it was perfect, so I started investigating."

"Two years ago." Alex supplied with a raised eyebrow. Ada laughed weakly, and nodded. "I only arrived in the Settlement about a year ago, I researched it first. And I didn't get the Shepard's trust from day one – unlike  _Maggie_  here. That was pretty much love at first sight."

Maggie nodded slowly. "...So, you got close to him, married him… What was your endgame?"

"I was waiting for him to return back to civilization. He does it once in a while, god knows why." Ada frowned. "… But if he did, I'd tip off a guy who knows Superman, and he would take him down, so we could set the people in the cult free. I kept on waiting, but it didn't happen. That's how it became over a year. And I needed to be as close to him as possible. I kept a journal."

"Do you still have it?"

"It'll probably still be back in my room at the bunker." Ada nodded.

Alex excused herself quickly, probably trying to get another chopper in the air to go retrieve it. And if not, to call her sister to fly her over.

Leaving Maggie alone with Ada, who folded her arms. "So…  _Margaret_."

"Just Maggie."

The blonde laughed. "Was it your first time?"

"Undercover? No. But it was the first time I did something big."

"Did you have a handler?"

Maggie motioned to the door that Alex had just walked out of. Ada nodded in understanding. "The agent… She seems a bit touchy-feely though. An awkward one-night-stand that went too far?"

Maggie sighed, realizing that there was no way she could avoid the topic any longer. Her stomach turned, as she cleared her throat. "My wife, actually."

Ada's eyes widened. "I-  _oh_."

Maggie cast her eyes downward, to stare at the floor of the med bay. She  _knew_  that what she'd done had been wrong. Had been  _cheating_ , not okay in the slightest.

But it had all been cover, it hadn't  _meant_  anything.

At least she thought so.

"Well… that changes things." Ada rubbed the back of her neck with a frown, seemingly trying to process. "And also takes a lot of balls. I broke up with my boyfriend of two years to go undercover, I basically made everyone think I died, just to be sure."

"Why?" Maggie frowned. "I was  _terrified_  of having nobody in there, why wouldn't you want anyone to come back to?!"

"Because I wasn't sure  _if_  I was coming back, at all." Ada said simply.

And Maggie understood.  _She_  might have had an entire government operation behind her, with a strike team and helicopters that could extract her in fifteen minutes time, but going in alone as a journalist… that was something else completely.

"I figured it was better if my parents just accepted that I was gone, and would be pleasantly surprised if I  _did_  show up at their doorstep, rather than give them the rest of their lives with uncertainty and false hope if I ended up in a shallow grave somewhere."

"But someone  _had_  to have known what you were doing?"

"Yeah, a friend of mine, at the Daily Planet."

Maggie felt slightly relieved. At least Ada did have  _something_  left. But then she saw the change in the woman's posture.

"Look, I really think we need to talk about what happened in there."

"I don't." Maggie shook her head. "I wasn't  _me_ , you weren't  _you_. I thought you were a brainwashed, hopeless and naïve sheep that was praying to some alien, hoping that he'd save her…" Maggie trailed off. "I have a life that I came back to."

Ada grimaced. And Maggie realized with a jolt that she'd crossed a line, especially with what Ada had just told her about leaving everything behind. But before she could apologize or continue, Ada nodded. "You're right. We were both pretending to be somebody we weren't. But… I… Maggie, for me this hasn't changed anything."

"Yeah, because  _you_  knew who I was since I walked in." Maggie defended. "You didn't have to pretend."

"I had to pretend for  _far_  longer than you."

"That's not what I meant." Maggie sighed. "Look, we trusted each other. We had…  _something_. But it's over now, I'm not who I was in there, and I can't be that person now."

"Can't or won't?" Ada raised an eyebrow.

"Both!" Maggie shot back. "I'm  _married_ , Ada! I'm not saying that it didn't  _mean_  anything, it meant the world to me to have you in there! But it was meant to end the second I walked out of that town. And… I can't deal with it here. I have too much on my plate already."

Ada swallowed thickly at the words. "Well, I'd hate to be a  _burden_  to you, Maggie."

Maggie wanted to reply, but watched as the woman shoved past her, and out of the room.

_Fuck._

* * *

 

"Does the name Adeline Collins mean anything to you?" Alex asked subtly, the second her feet had touched the sand of the Settlement main street.

Her sister, who had landed behind her and was now patting the dust off her uniform, tilted her head. "What's it about?"

"Apparently she's a journalist at the Daily Planet. I figured maybe you knew her."

"The name does ring a bell…" Kara frowned in thought. "Uh… Wait, is she the one that writes all of the alien stuff?"

"Yeah, she is." Alex was relieved that her sister seemed to recognize the woman, that her story at least wasn't made up on the spot.

Kara nodded quickly. "Yeah, I haven't met her, but I know Clark has. He sends me some of her work sometimes. She's a good read. Why the interest?"

"She was here. Investigating the cult. Maggie and her were friends."

"No way!" Kara's eyes widened in shock. "She's dead?!"

Alex sighed. "No, she woke up, just like Maggie. We don't know why. That's why we're here – we need to come get her journal. She's been in the cult for a year now, and she was _married_  to the Shepard."

Kara noticed that Alex's tone was a bit more distant than it usually was, and stopped walking to put a hand on her sister's shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Alex said. But it was obvious that Kara didn't buy it.

Alex pressed her lips together. "It's just... Maggie's been really distant, and she's been…  _different_. And… Kara, you didn't see the way she was acting around that woman."

"How?"

Alex frowned. "It's… it's probably just me being paranoid. She told me that Ada was her only true friend in there, of course she cares about her. I guess I'm just jealous… I feel like I'm going to lose her, Kara."

Kara's expression softened immediately, as she pulled Alex in for a hug. She felt her sister take a shaky breath below her, and rubbed her back slowly.

When they pulled away, Alex dabbed at her eyes with the back of her hand. "She said that she wanted me to stay. But that was  _before_ she had somebody who knows what it was like in there. And I'm just… really  _grateful_  that she has somebody she can talk to. But it  _hurts_ , Kara, it fucking hurts to see her like that."

"I know." Kara nodded in understanding. "But the best thing you can do right now is let her be, and give her whatever she needs from you. As much as you can."

Alex closed her eyes, willing to keep the fresh set of tears inside, as she started making her way over to the forest once again. She felt her sister trail close behind her, but stayed silent.

Only after they'd reached the bunker, based on the maps and guidelines Maggie had previously given them, did Alex finally break the silence. "You're going to have to pull off the hatch."

Kara frowned, squinting her eyes and apparently using her x-ray vision to scout ahead into the maze of underground corridors below them. She reached for the hatch, but froze before she could pull it off.

Alex sensed that something was wrong immediately. "What? What is it?"

Kara looked up to meet her sister's eyes. "I- I think there's someone down there, Alex."


	12. Chapter 12

"What do you  _mean_  there's someone down there?"

"I  _mean_." Kara frowned, looking down once again. "I can see somebody walking around downstairs."

"Male? Female? Body posture?" Alex pried. Her sister squinted to look again. "Male. Looks tall."

Alex reached for her pistol, and nodded at her. Kara tried to stay quiet as she pulled the hatch off its hinges, and threw it back. She lead the way down the ladder below, gently floating downward until her feet landed on the concrete floor. Alex followed shortly, throwing her sister a few hand gestures.

_Stay quiet. Surprise him._

Kara nodded, and the pair started making its way towards where Kara had seen him.

_If it was the Shepard…_

Alex wasn't all that sure that she'd be able to stay level-headed. That thing had broken their relationship, not to mention Maggie herself.

And based on everything Maggie had told her during her time in the cult, and the things they knew about the alien… They didn't know anything.

If it really was from another dimension, then there wasn't a whole lot they could do about him. But they'd pulled in alien experts from all around the world, and Alex herself had done a large investigation in the alien bar, asking around whether anyone knew about the alien, or its abilities.

Nobody had known anything.

So if the Shepard was really behind that door they were currently closing in on, Alex was convinced that despite her rage there wouldn't be the slightest chance that she'd be able to overpower him.

And running head-first into a suicide mission wouldn't do anyone any good. Least of all Maggie.

So when Kara motioned to the door, Alex raised her fist to make her sister stop and shook her head. She motioned for Kara to fall back, but the blonde frowned.

Alex took a step back and holstered her gun once again, rubbing at the bridge of her nose. She had to think. The diary had to be somewhere around there.

Unless whoever was in there was trying to get to it first, of course.

Kara waved her hands in front of Alex's face and frowned.  _What are you doing?!_

Alex shook her head once again, but before she could reply, the both of them heard a noise coming from the closed door.

" _No, I can't find it. It's not here_."

A muted, frustrated voice that Alex couldn't place. But it didn't sound like the Shepard.

" _Tell him he can come get it himself._ "

Alex's gaze hardened. She was convinced that it wasn't the Shepard now. Moving forward again, she motioned for Kara to open the door. The Kryptonian nodded and braced herself, shoving her weight against the door to shove it open.

But instead of the door flying off its hinges, much to both sisters' surprise, the door barely dented.

"What?!" Kara said out loud, reflexively, as she tried to punch the door once again. And again.

Alex felt her heart pounding in her chest.

When Kara wound up for another punch, the door unlocked by itself and flew open, almost making the superhero run into the wall on the other side but managing to only stumble into the room. Alex pulled her gun once again and ran inside behind her.

The room was deserted. A spacious bed, a hot tub in the corner, far too luxurious furniture…

This had to be the Shepard's private room Maggie had told her about. The one nobody but his three wives were allowed to enter.

"He's gone." Kara's astonished voice snapped her out of her thoughts, before the blonde turned to her. "How did he disappear?! Do you think it was the Shepard?!"

"I don't know." Alex answered honestly. "But I'm more interested in what they were looking for."

With a nod to her sister, Alex knew that they were going to have to comb out the entire bunker looking for the journal, and anything else that could help the investigation.

She threw Kara a pair of gloves from her back pocket, and put on a pair herself, as they got to work.

* * *

 

She'd spent the first whole day in the cult mostly exploring, and being lead around by some of the townspeople who were apparently set up by Ada to at least be polite to her.

She'd joined them in prayer to be polite, and tried to remember as much of what they were saying as possible, to relay all of the info back to Alex. That evening, she'd found herself sitting alone at a table once again, glancing up at the table of honor, where Tess was keeping the other two wives entertained with a story. The Shepard had been nowhere in sight.

After dinner, she checked in with Alex, who had told her that it was time to start acting the part more. Somebody worried for her boyfriend and wellbeing would want to leave immediately, not sit and wait around.

She had to stage an escape.

" _There is a possibility that they won't let you leave."_  Alex had warned.

Maggie had laughed. That's what she was hoping for.

So that night, when she was sure everybody would be asleep, she tiptoed out of the hut they'd assigned her to temporarily, and started walking back to the gates.

She was convinced that somebody would still be up, and catch her in the act.

Reaching for her glasses, she put in her earpiece. Alex had told her to come online when she was sneaking out, to follow what was happening. If it _did_  go south, then at least she'd know.

As she neared the gates, she realized that the town was completely quiet and deserted. Perhaps her theory hadn't even been right in the first place – maybe she  _could_  leave after all.

Did they have enough to go on? Could they build a case from just those two days?

Surely, the baptism alone would be reason enough to dismantle the entire town?!

_Damn_ , she thought.  _Alex and I haven't talked about whether I'm actually supposed to try to leave._

The choice was made for her, though, when she heard a voice calling out her name.

"Margaret!"

Maggie spun around to see Elise walking over to her with calm, composed steps.  _Shit._

"What are you doing up? You should be resting."

_I could ask you the same question._  "I was…" Maggie sighed. "I was trying to leave."

"Why would you try to leave?"

Maggie chuckled humorlessly. "Because my  _boyfriend_  is missing, and I'll probably be reported missing too. I need to get back home. I'm really grateful for all that you people have done for me, but I can't  _stay here_." She finished with a scoff, as if the thought alone was ridiculous.

Elise didn't seem amused. "The Shepard won't let you leave."

"The Shepard is the one that sent people to go look for my car."

"He lied." Elise said simply, the same neutral, almost bored look on her face. "You're one of us now."

Maggie shifted nervously. "Listen, I don't know what you want from me, but this is absolutely insane…"

" _Don't call her insane._ " Came Alex's voice in her ear. Maggie backtracked, and continued. "… I was  _lost_ , I needed help. But I'll just walk out of here, you don't need to help me anymore."

"I can't let you do that."

Maggie was growing uneasy. "Says who?"

"If you leave now, you will come back and bring death to us all."

"Right. The omens your Shepard told you about. So what, I'm some demon that's here to kill all of you?" Maggie laughed. She didn't know what came over her suddenly, but Elise had been watching her get  _murdered_  during the baptism, and she hadn't even  _attempted_  to stop them. She was just as responsible as those other people for what they'd done to her.

" _Maggie_ …" Alex's warning voice once again.

"If you walk out of our gates, you will die.  _Instantly_." The distance and coldness in the woman's voice actually made Maggie's hair rise up.

Elise was serious.

" _Go back. Obey her._ "

The four words in her ear made Maggie hope that Alex had recorded the entire exchange. Because she was convinced that 'only a couple of days' had just turned into something else entirely.

* * *

 

"Alex?"

Her sister's voice rang out through the bunker, echoing off the walls. Alex, who had been turning one of the mattresses upside down to look for hidden objects or stashed clues, looked up.

"What is it?"

"I think… I found something."

Alex got up from her knees, and walked out of the room, making a mental note to return to it to continue her investigation. But as she made her way over to where she'd heard Kara's voice, and entered another room that seemed like a bedroom, she saw Kara holding a black book in her hands.

"Is that it?" Alex said.

Kara nodded breathlessly. "It was taped to the underside of the closet."

Alex took it out of Kara's outstretched hand, and felt curiousity get the best of her. She knew that she had to respect Maggie's privacy, but if something had happened between her and that journalist when they were both in there…

She needed to know.

She flipped to the last few pages, and looked around for Maggie's name.

Soon enough finding a passage that gripped her attention completely.

_Margaret – FBI? Can handle a knife, defended herself._

_Must investigate further._

_Probably gay. Attempt seduction._

Alex's eyes widened, as she almost ripped the pages out in an attempt to browse through them faster, searching for Maggie's name again.

_September 6_ _th_ _– Have saved Margaret's life, she's now wrapped around my finger. Now to figure out who she works for, and why they're interested in the Shepard. I need answers. If she gets in the way of my investigation, I might need to get rid of her. For now, play the part. Pretend I like her back._

Alex saw red.


	13. Chapter 13

When Kara landed on the DEO balcony, she almost lost her balance with how quickly Alex was jumping out of her arms.

Back in the bunker, she'd just seen her sister's gaze harden, before she ordered Kara to fly her back  _that instant_. Kara had known better than to ask questions when Alex looked ready to murder. She just hoped that her sister's anger wasn't directed at Maggie.

To be honest, the things she'd read in the journal made it pretty obvious to Kara that Ada had manipulated the time she'd spent undercover. If she'd known that Maggie wasn't who she said she was…

Kara didn't want to think about what Ada had held over Maggie's head.

Alex launched herself down the steps to the command center in a sprint, and took a right, almost losing her footing as she turned into the hallway.

"Alex, wait!" Kara yelled, running after her. She didn't bother using her super speed, she knew where Alex was going.

_The med bay._

Where hopefully for her sake, Ada wasn't.

Because if she didn't like the explanation Ada gave, she wouldn't hesitate in joining her sister's rage.

_Nobody_  touched Maggie and got away with it.

As they rushed into the room, practically arriving at the same time, Alex skidded to a halt as she realized that the only person inside was Maggie, her arms wrapped around herself.

When the detective turned around, it was clear that she'd been crying.

Alex's rage stopped abruptly, as it had seemingly lost its target. "Where is Ada?"

"I-I don't know. She left."

Alex turned around, but Kara put a hand on her shoulder. "I'll go look for her. Don't worry."

Upon seeing the serious look in her sister's eyes, Alex gave a quick nod of consent. Kara sped out of the room and the door closed behind her, leaving the two women alone in silence.

Alex glanced up at Maggie, who dabbed the back of her hand across her cheek quickly, apparently trying to compose herself. "D-did you uh… did you find the journal?"

The agent nodded weakly, holding it up for Maggie. Upon seeing the book, a fresh set of tears spilled down Maggie's cheeks, as she hunched over breathlessly. "I'm  _sorry_ , Alex… I'm so sorry…"

Alex closed her eyes, willing herself to stay calm. But seeing Maggie's pleading broke her heart. That woman… that  _bitch_  had played with Maggie's mind, controlled her and manipulated her so that she could be another pawn in her game…

She shook her head. "Tell me what happened. With Ada. All of it."

Maggie took a shaky breath, and dropped down onto one of the beds. "W-when I realized that I was going to have to stay longer than a few days… I didn't know where to start. Where I'd fit in, or what I was supposed to do. So I turned to her. I asked her all these questions, and she answered them all, she was  _so patient_."

Alex bit her tongue to keep quiet, focusing on what Maggie was telling her.

"… And then she asked me all about what I did for a living, what skills I had… assigned me a job, and sent me on my way."

Alex nodded. Maggie had told her all of this during her debriefings. It was nothing new – Ada had been the closest thing Maggie had to a friend in there.

But she knew that the story would turn out differently soon.

"What happened September 6th, Maggie?"

The detective's eyes shot up to meet her. "I… h-how…?"

Alex held up the journal. "You kept things from me. You didn't tell me you almost died. You didn't tell me  _anything_  about the things that happened with Ada.  _What happened September 6_ _th_?"

Maggie closed her eyes, and sighed. "I was asleep..."

* * *

 

Her eyes snapped open, but saw nothing but darkness.

Sleep was still heavy in her skull, and a brief second after she'd gotten her bearings, she realized she was in her hut. In the middle of the night.

_Why the hell had she woken up?_

A creaking noise to her right made her eyes flit towards the door.

A dark silhouette was standing in the doorway, illuminated by the moonlight. Maggie didn't dare to breathe or move.

The figure moved closer, the floorboards creaking underneath its feet. Maggie felt herself tense up, suddenly wide awake. Her heart pounding painfully in her chest.

As it neared her, she saw something reflecting the moonlight in its hand.

_A knife._

_Shit._

Instinctively, Maggie steeled herself. And the second the figure got a step away from the bed, she reacted.

She jumped off the mattress, and leapt towards it, tackling it to the ground. Lifting her head, she vaguely recognized the man – one of the townspeople. A murderous look in his eyes as he raised the knife once again, aiming for her face.

Maggie pulled her head back and ducked, punching the man in the face and grabbing him by the collar to keep him down onto the floor.

"You don't belong here…" The man hissed at her, before lunging one more time. This time, Maggie went straight for the knife, attempting to wrestle it out of his hands. She clenched both of her hands around the man's wrist, pulling with a loud grunt.

He managed a good jab in, elbowing her in the gut. But as she doubled over, she kicked the man's knee, sending him toppling to the ground.

He reached for her blindly, and pulled her down towards him, raising the knife.

In that moment, Maggie realized she'd lost.

Her final attempt to jump away from the man's grasp was left unanswered, as she toppled to the ground. Through the headache she felt, having slammed her head into one of the legs of her bed, she managed to hear a muffled grunt, and the sound of something dripping on the floor.

She turned around, just in time to see a woman standing over her assassin, the knife he'd been clutching now lodged in his throat, and dripping blood onto the floor.

Her savior.

"Ada…?" She whispered, trying to pull herself up from the floor. But Ada ignored the question, instead moving towards her, kneeling next to her. "Shh, it's okay."

Maggie took a moment to catch her breath, before she realized that she was supposed to be way more traumatized about this – she wasn't exactly supposed to be used to being at knifepoint.

Immediately, she started panting and panicking. "W-who  _was_  that?! W-what did he want!"

"Shhh…" Ada gently wrapped an arm around her torso, pulling her up. "Are you okay?"

Maggie shook her head. "He wanted to  _kill_  me…"

Why  _did_  he want to murder her? She'd been keeping a low profile, blending in with the crowd. She hadn't done anything remotely attention-grabbing since her failed escape plan, and that had been a week ago.

Why now?

Ada eased her back onto her feet, before her eyes widened. "Shit…  _he got you_."

Maggie glanced down, to see that Ada was already putting pressure on a spot on her ribs, some blood drenching through her white shirt. She winced, only now feeling the sting the knife had delivered. It didn't bleed enough for a stab wound, so it was probably just a cut.

He'd probably grazed her when she was pulling him down.  _Fuck._

Ada apparently took her silence as her feeling nauseous and dizzy, because she eased her down onto the ground with such tenderness, that it actually made Maggie forget about the pain for a second.

The woman moved down, and wasted no time in ripping open the shirt Maggie had been sleeping in, for better access to her wound.

Maggie felt slightly uncomfortable at the fact that the woman was so close to her now uncovered breasts, though the blonde looked far more worried than anything.

"It's going to need stitches." She mumbled. "Helen is…"

Maggie winced at the mention of the woman. She'd been avoiding her all week, trying not to cross paths with her. Though, she was sure that the woman had been punished enough for her actions – she'd heard talk upon the townspeople that the doctor had spent every night since the baptism alone, outside in the cold.

"Right." Ada chuckled weakly. "Is it okay if I do it? I promise I'll be gentle."

"Have you ever stitched someone up before?" Maggie laughed uneasily.

Ada shrugged. "Shouldn't be harder than knitting a sweater?"

She did actually turn a little green upon hearing it, but gave Ada the benefit of the doubt and allowed her to pull her arm across her shoulders and support her out of the hut and into the open.

_Where had Ada learn to fight like that?_  She didn't seem shaken up in the slightest about stabbing that knife through the man's throat…

"How did you know to come?" Maggie whispered through gritted teeth as a flash of pain seeped through her body. Her head was still throbbing, but it was probably just a bump.

Ada suddenly appeared nervous. "I… I was going to see if you were still up. I wanted to talk to you. But then I saw that you were in trouble."

"About what?" Maggie glanced up at her weakly.

"Here… Hang on." Ada said, readjusting so she could pick Maggie up into her arms. The detective's heart jumped at the movement, but she felt oddly safe in the woman's arms.

After all, she'd saved her life. Twice now, because she hadn't forgotten about how Ada had helped her after the baptism, and brought her to the Shepard.

Brainwashed cult-victim or not… she owed her.

"I couldn't sleep." Ada whispered, as she crossed the bridge over the river, and took the road leading back to the forest. "So I came to see if you wanted to talk about…  _anything_ , basically."

"Of course."

Ada smiled. "Guess I was just in a sentimental mood. Killing a man kind of ruined the vibe, though."

Maggie remembered how murder was completely illegal in the town. Anyone guilty of murdering another person intentionally was sentenced to death.

_Not Ada…_

"Don't worry." Ada had to have noticed the distraught look on her face. "I'm his wife, he won't kill me. Plus, that man was going to kill you. If anything, I saved him the trouble."

With a shaky breath, Maggie finally realized how close to death she'd come that night. Had she not woken up, he'd have stabbed her twenty times and left her for dead.

_Alex would have found her like that._

She curled up closer into Ada's strong arms, and closed her eyes, hoping that the nightmare would be over soon.

* * *

 

"She stitched me up, we talked. She promised me that the Shepard would hear about it, and take care of it."

"Why couldn't she have just brought you to him to heal your cut, then?" Alex raised an eyebrow. She'd been horrified to hear what Maggie had gone through, and the fact that she hadn't told her, had stung.

But she hadn't forgotten what Ada had written in her journal.

"Did you ever tell her?"

"Tell her what?" Maggie frowned.

"That you were undercover. Who you worked for."

Maggie's eyes widened at Alex's accusatory tone. "I-  _no_ , of course not! I know how to keep a cover, Alex. What the hell are you talking about?!"

"She knew the man was going to be there, Maggie." Alex replied, opening the journal to the right page and shoving it into Maggie's hands. "She followed you, she knew that you were undercover since day one. And she set the whole thing up, to get your trust."

Maggie read the paragraph Alex had been pointing to, and felt her heart sink. She dropped down onto the bed once again, unable to breathe.

_So it had all been a lie._

And she'd been stupid enough to believe anything that woman had told her. All the evenings they'd spent together talking, staring up at the stars, sharing life experiences that now turned out to be lies on  _both_  sides…

"She made sure that you'd be terrified to spend a day away from her, because she could protect you against the people of the town with bad intentions." Alex whispered. As much as she hated to be right, she knew that she had to talk about it.

"But _why_ …?" Maggie whispered.

"To torture you." Alex replied, stepping forward and putting both hands on Maggie's cheeks, looking her in the eyes.

"And now… I think she and that Shepard are working together to get revenge on you for walking out of their cult alive."


	14. Chapter 14

Ada was the key.

As much as Alex hated to think about it, as much as she was ready to put a bullet between the woman's eyes, she was convinced that she needed her alive to understand what had happened the night everything went wrong inside the walls of the Settlement.

The only thing they knew for sure is that some kind of ceremony had taken place. The white garments were apparently only worn when something big happened. But as much as Maggie had learned about the rituals and way of life within the cult, she couldn't remember what event had occurred.

At this point, Alex was sure that Ada had faked her amnesia. The agent was convinced that the woman was working along with the Shepard, and stringing Maggie along, manipulating and deceiving her.

"Anything?" She asked while tapping her earpiece, hoping that her sister had captured the woman during her escape. She waited for the other line to  _beep_ , before she heard Kara's voice. " _Nothing yet. I'll keep looking._ "

Alex suddenly remembered something. "She said that she was friends with someone at the Daily Planet. Could you see if Clark knows anything?"

" _I'll go check. Keep you posted._ "

Alex turned around with a grunt. She didn't like this one bit – not being in control. Barely having any clue about what was happening.

She made the list in her head. What  _did_  they know?

They had Dorian, the whistleblower, who had vanished when the Shepard had taken him from the safehouse. Leaving behind a nearly dead agent as a present to the DEO.

They had North Bridge, whatever it was or meant. A tangible clue that they had yet to decipher.

Maggie, who had changed completely during her stay within the walls, and didn't remember anything leading up to that night.

Ada, a woman that was definitely not on their side of things, that she vowed to keep as far away from Maggie as possible.

And the Shepard – she didn't know what the hell he was. Probably a being from the fifth dimension as far as she could tell, as he had manipulated reality and had an endless list of abilities.

She sighed, rubbing the back of her head. It wasn't much, but it was something. And she had to keep investigating.

She'd left Maggie in the med bay, as Hamilton had the results back from her tests and wanted to follow up. And she'd wanted to be there with Maggie, to support her, to  _hear_  what the tests had said. But Hamilton had told her that she wanted to talk to Maggie in private first.

_Just in case Maggie wasn't comfortable with Alex hearing about it._

Amelia hadn't said the words literally, but Alex knew what she meant.

So instead of moping around wishing that she could be there for her wife, she flung herself at their investigation.

There was currently an investigative team at the safehouse, once again analyzing the entire house but now looking for clues that Ada could have been involved. Alex knew that it was a lost cause, but at least it felt like they were doing  _something._

And Winn had searched every database known to man for 'North Bridge', but his algorithm hadn't made a single noise, indicating that it was as stumped as they were.

Frustrated, she leaned on the command center table, browsing through the mission files filled with the transcripts from all of their communications while Maggie was undercover. Maybe she'd missed something.

But her mind kept on wandering off to the med bay.

* * *

 

"The drug we found in your system was consistent with the one found in the other people from the town." Hamilton said, glancing down at her clipboard. "Dosage was the same, so that means you weren't singled out. Everyone had the same thing – whether administered or taken by will, we're not quite sure."

Maggie nodded slowly, unsure how to respond to the news. The doctor sighed. "It's plant-based, just not something we have here on Earth. The bio department is trying to compare it to other specimens we have, maybe we can match it to a certain planet."

"They drugged me a few times when I was there." Maggie admitted. "Always memory loss. There might still be some of it there. I don't know where they'd keep it. Maybe in the bunker."

"I'll make a note of that, someone can go look for it during the next expediti-..."

"Amelia?" Maggie cut the woman off with a frown, looking down at her hands. "Why did you tell Alex that she couldn't be here? What's going on?"

"I… figured that you wanted to process the results on your own."

" _Bullshit_." Maggie whispered hoarsely, shaking her head. "That's not the reason."

The doctor sighed, lowering her clipboard. "Maggie, you have to understand the kind of pressure Alex is under. As much as you suffered, you have to know that she suffered too."

Maggie frowned, and huffed incredulously. "Y-you think I don't know that?! You think that I don't see the  _looks_  she gives me? I'm- I'm  _trying_  to be normal!"

The tears came faster than she'd expected, but she couldn't stop them once they spilled, and willed herself to talk through them, sadness replaced with frustrated anger. "I feel so  _horrible_  a-and  _violated_  and I  _can't deal_ with any of it! I didn't ask for it, Amelia… I-it was just supposed to be a couple of days inside, I didn't want to be  _brainwashed,_ I-…" She cut herself off quickly, realizing that she was saying things she didn't want to say, least of all to the medic standing in front of her. But Hamilton didn't show any visible response to her outburst, instead nodding slowly.

"I know. And Alex knows that too. But Maggie…" The woman placed a gentle hand on Maggie's shoulder, looking her in the eyes. "You can't let this break you. You're so strong. This is just a bump in the road. You're going to get  _better_."

"She's never going to forgive me for what happened in there." Maggie said, her expression showing nothing but sadness and regret.

Hamilton shook her head. "She wants you to recover from this. Whatever you need. That's what she said, right? So don't think about that. Focus on yourself first. Maybe go talk to a therapist, if you don't feel like talking to anyone here."

Maggie rubbed at her tears with a shaky hand. "She's my handler, I  _need_  to talk to her."

"You don't need to do  _anything_  you're not comfortable with, Maggie. And she knows that. It hurts, of course it does, but she's willing to do anything for you, if it helps you heal."

Upon seeing that Maggie only managed a small nod, the doctor continued. "There are ways to jog your memory, we've been developing some new ones with some alien technology. It's not on point yet, but should you want it, we can give it a try."

Maggie nodded immediately. "I'd like that, yes."

_But not without her Alex._

* * *

 

"Alex?"

She looked up at the sound of her name being called, and saw Winn sitting at his desk. "I might possibly… have something."

Hearing those words made her lightheaded, as she made her way over to his desk, leaning her hand on his chair as she waited for him to start talking. Winn turned to face her. "So… I was thinking... it was probably something that the townspeople wouldn't be allowed to hear. So, what would  _you_  do if you didn't want somebody to overhear your important conversation?"

"Code it." Alex replied with a frown. Since she'd seen all of the bridges in the Settlement herself, she doubted that they were talking about an actual bridge – it  _had_  to be code.

Winn nodded. "So I'm thinking… What if it's an anagram?"

Alex hadn't considered that in the slightest, but hoped that he was right. She reached for a piece of scratch paper tucked underneath his computer screen, and started writing.

_North Bridge_

She then started striking through letters, a frown plastered on her face in concentration.

_Born Righted_

"That makes sense – born righted. Because of the baptism, you get righted again, you're born good again?" Winn supplied. But Alex wasn't satisfied, and tried again.

_Bride Throng_

"Bride Throng… Maybe the event was a  _throng_  -people gathering together to witness someone new becoming one of his brides?"

Her gut feeling told Alex that it wasn't what they were looking for. She scratched through more letters, until she finally shook her head. None of the anagrams made enough sense to be plausible.

She lowered the pen, glancing at the two words on top of the page, that had haunted her dreams ever since she first heard them.

Until she saw it.

Her eyes widened. "Winn, you're a genius."

He chuckled weakly. "Well, I've been told, but-…" He didn't continue, as Alex was already furiously scribbling onto the piece of paper, and circling around what she'd written down.

_Rebirth In God_

Winn tilted his head. "But that's twelve letters, not eleven…?"

Alex nodded silently, as she wrote down underneath it.

_I, North Bridge._

She looked him in the eyes. "We're looking for a person."


	15. Chapter 15

"Alright, put this on your head."

Maggie accepted the helmet, and complied without question, leaning back on the bed.

"When is Alex going to get here?"

"She'll be here soon, don't worry." Hamilton said. "She was setting up an operation, I don't know the details. But I told her to come here as soon as she was finished."

Maggie nodded slowly, and took a deep breath. "Can you walk me through it?"

"I'm going to ask you some questions, the helmet is going to give impulses to your brain that might help the connections, and bring back some memories that you still have but can't remember. We're still working on the drug's contents so we don't know if its effects are reversible, but this is a good start. If you want to stop, at any time, just say the word and I'll switch it off, okay?"

After another nod of consent, Amelia dimmed the lights in the med bay. "Talk to me as much as possible, anything you can remember. I'm recording it, so that we don't miss anything."

As soon as she activated the helmet, Maggie started to hear a faint buzzing in her head, and winced at the sound. It was too loud, reverberating in her head, echoing through her skull, pounding…

"You alright?"

She nodded quickly at the doctor's concern. "Just… do it. Please."

Amelia sighed. "What is the last thing you can remember?"

"I… was talking to Katherine." Maggie replied, her eyes closed.

"Who's Katherine?"

"She arrived… a few days before that. She was an Outsider, a new person trying to join."

"Can you tell me more about her?"

Maggie hesitated.

She wanted to tell Amelia the story, but she was starting to fidget. Kara was going after Ada, and maybe Ada had done something to her, maybe Alex was in on it, maybe Ada wanted revenge on her by going after Alex…

Her mind raced, and she couldn't stop the panic that was seeping into her throat, closing it up and making it hard to breathe.

" _Maggie_?" She vaguely heard her name being called, but it was far away, and the buzzing in her ears made it hard to think. She was hyperventilating –  _god_ , she was having a panic attack, what if Alex wasn't okay, what if…

"Maggie." The voice was clearer now, as she felt someone taking her hand in hers. It felt familiar, but before she could respond to it, the helmet was yanked from her head. And as abruptly as the buzzing stopped, Maggie shot up from the bed, still panting.

"Babe, it's okay…"

_Alex._

The relief upon seeing that Alex was standing next to the bed, a worried frown plastered on her face, as she held Maggie in her arms made the detective lightheaded. "Breathe, babe. It's okay, you're at the DEO, you're safe…"

Maggie reached for Alex's hand with her free one, and she was pretty sure she was breaking her wife's bones with how tightly she was gripping it.

She heard Amelia whisper something to Alex, who replied with a hushed "Just a few minutes."

After that, Amelia shuffled out of the room, leaving Maggie alone with Alex, who had her arms wrapped around her and was rocking her gently.

When Maggie had her breathing under control at least enough to stammer out words, she looked up into Alex's eyes. "I- y-you were…"

"I'm sorry I wasn't here, Mags." Alex's face showed regret, and Maggie's heart broke at the sight. She didn't want Alex to feel like she had to drop everything for her, she was being  _selfish_  in asking that of her.

"I'm sorry." Maggie cleared her throat, trying to sound steady. "I just… panicked."

"Did you remember something?" Alex asked.

Maggie shook her head slowly. "I don't think so. It was just… you weren't there and I thought Ada had done something to you, or- it's stupid, never mind."

"No, it's not." Alex said, lifting Maggie's chin to rest their foreheads together. "It's not stupid at all. But Kara is still out looking for her, and she's checking her sources at the Daily Planet too. And me and Winn figured something out about North Bridge."

Maggie's eyes widened. "What?!"

"Turns out, it's not a bridge at all. It's a  _person_. But we have to find them."

"A person?" Maggie frowned, as she glanced down to the floor, trying to think. "Tess and Elise were talking about it, that's all I remember. Maybe I learned more the final day, but…"

"It's okay, don't worry." Alex smiled weakly. "Winn is working on the identification, and he's going to try and see if anything comes up that gives us more context. Do you think you'll be okay in trying again when Amelia comes back?"

"Cognitive interviews have never really worked for me, but… Maybe this alien stuff will help."

Alex kissed Maggie's temple. "I'm right here. I'm going to stay here for as long as you want, alright?"

The detective nodded slowly, before she had an idea.

"Babe?"

"Yeah, Mags?"

"I know what to do."

* * *

 

A horrible, horrible,  _horrendous_  plan, that Alex wasn't a fan of in the slightest.

But the alien technology had barely given them any more information. As it turned out, the drugs were doing their proper job of keeping Maggie's mind fuzzy, because no matter what techniques she or Amelia used, Alex was convinced Maggie honestly didn't remember a thing.

At this point, Amelia scoffed that maybe hitting her over the head with a frying pan would do a better job at making her remember.

But Maggie had looked her in the eyes afterwards, squeezed her hand gently, and whispered. "He's coming. Tomorrow evening."

"Who?"

"The Shepard, Alex. That's why he was in our bedroom."

Alex felt her heart stop, but willed herself to bite her tongue until Maggie was finished.

"He wants me to join him, to start again. He'll be back tomorrow to take me with him."

"Maggie…" Alex whispered, but the detective shook her head. "You know we won't be able to stop him, we still haven't figured out what he is. But he knows about North Bridge, and he knows how to get my memory back. And if I go…  _with him_ , then maybe you can track me, and I can get information out of him on how to defeat him."

"No." Alex shook her head. "I'm not letting you go again, not with that  _maniac_. He could kill you the second you walk out,  _god_ , no."

"Alex-…"

" _No_!" Alex screamed, losing her patience, as she felt the thick tears starting to run down her cheeks. She'd willed herself never to cry at the DEO, at  _work_ , but  _this_ … she couldn't take this.

"It's an undercover op, Alex. I'll do it again, and this time we can  _really_  bring him down."

"Ada knows who you are, and she's working with him! You can't expect this of me, Maggie."

"I  _have_  to."

Maggie jumped off the bed, and walked to the doors of the med bay.

" _Mags_." She heard Alex's voice behind her. "If you walk out that door right now, and into the arms of that…  _thing_ , then we're done."

Maggie froze in her tracks. She knew how sensitive the whole subject was to Alex, maybe even more than to her, but this was the only solution. Alex had to see that.

She turned around to face her wife. "Give me  _something_ , Alex."

The agent seemed taken aback by the answer.

"Give me  _any_ other plan, that doesn't involve either Ada or the Shepard, in getting to know who North Bridge is, and what caused everyone to drop  _dead_ except for me.  _Anything_ , Alex. And I'll join you."

Alex opened her mouth, and shut it again, clenching her jaw. "I'm… I'm  _trying_ , Mags."

"We're out of time. There's no more  _trying_." Maggie shook her head. "I need you for this. If I'm about to run into his arms, pledging my loyalty and soul to him, then I need you to be there for me. As my wife, as my  _handler_ , Alex. The mission isn't over yet, don't you see that?! My objective was to gather enough evidence to take him down, and it's not done yet.  _We're_ not done yet."

Alex looked down, and felt Maggie's words run through her head over and over again.

Until she finally looked up, and locked eyes with her wife.

"Okay. But we need to prepare you."

A small smirk appeared on Maggie's face, as she wrapped her arms around her in relief.

* * *

 

"Alex!"

" _Shhh_." Alex brought her index finger to her lips, nodding her head to the bed. "She's sleeping."

Kara winced at the noise she'd made, and pulled Alex out of the med bay and into the hallway, closing the door behind them.

Alex's stomach dropped at the serious look on her sister's face. "Talk to me, Kara."

"Right, uh…" Kara was apparently contemplating how to break the news to her sister. But Alex's impatient look made her reconsider, as she opened her mouth. "I went to the Daily Planet, like you asked."

"And?" Alex crossed her arms.

"I went to Clark, to ask about her, and who she hung out with. I told him the truth about the cult, and how she was undercover."

Alex nodded, feeling her heart thump painfully in her chest at the anticipation.

"Turns out, he knew the guy that was apparently her handler… because… it was  _him_."

The agent's eyes widened. "What?!"

Kara nodded. "Ada was a friend of his, she mentioned the investigation in the cult and he said that he had Superman on a speed-dial should something go wrong with her. All she had to do was press the watch he'd given her, and he'd swoop in and save her."

"So…" Alex rubbed her face, trying to make sense of it. "So he didn't know she was evil?"

"I'm… not actually sure she was evil to begin with, Alex." Kara frowned. "Maybe she was just… really deep undercover."

"She's North Bridge, Kara. I'm sure of it. We just have to figure out what it means, and why she survived. It can't  _just_  be because she was close to Maggie, there has to be more to the story."

"I'm right here with you, Alex. Whatever you need. But… Kal seemed adamant about the fact that Ada wasn't a bad person, that she was just undercover and that she'd done what was necessary to live."

"Seducing my wife and manipulating her to see her as some kind of savior." Alex scoffed. "Extremely necessary."

"For all we know, there's more to the story, Alex. If they wiped her mind, they could have done it more than once. They could have wiped out  _all_  sorts of memories."

Alex swallowed thickly at that implication, as she glanced back at the door her wife was behind.

On the other side of it, in the med bay, Maggie was awakened by the sound of the buzzing that had filled her mind when she'd put on the helmet. Her first incoherent thought was that maybe someone had left it on her head by accident.

But when she cracked her eyes open, and saw the figure standing next to her bed, she knew that she'd lost.

"I couldn't help but hear that you wanted to see me again, Margaret."

Maggie tried to jump out of the bed on her back, to get away from him, or to yell for Alex, but he grabbed her by the front of her shirt, and clenched one hand over her mouth.

"We're going on a trip, Margaret. Start all over again. Build a new bridge to another civilization."

Her eyes widened at the implication of his last phrase. But before she could remember it, he'd closed her eyes and pulled her into him, dragging her away from the med bay and into a vortex of swirling colors and light.

The doors to the med bay opened once again, and Alex walked inside, Kara hot on her heels. But she frowned when she saw the empty bed.

"Maggie…?"


	16. Chapter 16

"She's not in the command center. And I haven't seen her pass by either."

Alex sighed at Winn's words, the concern for her wife now a permanent gnawing feeling in her stomach. "I was with her, I just stepped outside for a  _second_ , she couldn't have walked past me."

Winn nodded, realizing what Alex was on to, and brought the camera footage of the med bay up on the monitor.

Alex clenched her eyes shut when she saw the familiar figure appearing in the room, grabbing Maggie by the shirt and pulling her into some sort of portal.

_Maggie was gone._

They hadn't gone over mission protocols, hadn't done anything to prepare her for it yet. Because Alex had insisted that she'd sleep first. Had  _insisted_  that she'd go outside to talk to Kara.

And  _Maggie was gone._

The only thing Alex knew, was that Maggie had trackers inside her body. Placed before she went undercover in the first place.

"Winn, show me her trackers,  _please_."

Winn, who had paled dramatically when he realized how the situation had taken a turn for the worse, nodded quickly and tapped a few more keys on the keyboard in front of him.

He activated the tracking device, and waited for the world map to start zooming in. But the pin kept moving around without getting located.

"What's going on, what does that mean?!" Alex shot back at him when she saw that it was getting nowhere. "Is the tracker offline? Did he get to her?!"

"No, I don't…" Winn rolled back from the monitors and got up from his chair to stand next to her.

"Either he knows that she has a tracker, and he took precautions… or he took her to another planet. And…" A nervous chuckle. "I think he might have done both."

* * *

 

"Wake up, Margaret."

Maggie groaned instinctively upon regaining consciousness. Before she even opened her eyes, the events of the med bay caught up to her.

_The Shepard._

She cracked an eye open, and saw a concrete floor underneath her. Slowly, she peeled both eyes open and lifted her head. The pounding felt like he'd taken a sledgehammer to her skull, but she ignored it in favor of pushing herself to sit upright. "Where did you take me?"

"Somewhere safe. Where nobody can touch us." The Shepard smiled, and crouched down in front of her, bringing a finger to her cheek to caress it. "You're so beautiful, Margaret. It doesn't matter who you are, or what intentions you had when you came into the Settlement. The important part is how you spent your time. Learning. Serving."

She prayed that her tracker was still working. That it would only be a matter of time until Alex would blast her way through the door, guns blazing, to rescue her.

Until then, she had to stall…  _whatever_  plans he had with her.

"So, I'm going to be your new North Bridge?"

The Shepard chuckled. "There is no replacing my Bridge. But I'll admit, I was surprised when I first heard you talk about it. I assumed my herbs had wiped it from your memory, but I guess you're stronger than I thought."

"You killed  _all_  of those people that worshipped you. And why? Because they  _knew_  something? Something they weren't allowed to know? About North Bridge?"

"You ask a lot of questions that you do not wish to know the answer to, Margaret." The Shepard stepped back, allowing Maggie to get her bearings and stumble to her feet. They were in a small concrete cell, about three by three yards. There was a solid iron door on the opposite wall Maggie was now leaning against. It looked like a prison.

"Then give me something. If you're going to kill me, at least humor me."

"Why would I want to kill you? At least you gave me a challenge. Defying me, defying my plan."

Maggie shook her head to drown out his words. "Go to hell."

The Shepard eyed her curiously. "I'll tell you everything you want to know, if  _you_  tell me how you survived the…  _incident_."

Maggie opened her mouth, but shut it again. If he wanted the info so bad… She had to play the game.

Buy Alex some more time.

"If you want to know, I want information first. Who is North Bridge? Why did you perform a  _genocide_  on your own worshippers? Why did Ada survive?!"

The Shepard's eyes widened slightly. "Ada is alive?"

Maggie trailed off nervously. She saw the confusion in his eyes clearly, and for a man that liked to keep a stoic face and act high and mighty, it was a completely unnatural look.

Before she could say anything else, the Shepard disappeared out of the cell with a  _pop_ , vanishing in thin air. Maggie realized that she was trapped until he came back for her – which could be a while.

Why did he look so confused? If Ada worked with him, surely he knew she'd still be alive? Or was he just playing more mind games, faking it to make things more complicated?

She slid down the wall and onto the ground with a sigh.

"Come on, Alex…"

* * *

 

" _Clarke gave me her home address, her parents' address, every single phone number he had… She's nowhere to be found, Alex. I'm starting to think she disappeared off the face of the planet too."_

Alex pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache seep into her skull at the lack of intel. "Okay, keep flying. Maybe try the Settlement once more, I don't-…" She stopped herself. She knew that she wasn't making much sense, but Kara seemed to understand, as she mumbled a positive reply, and switched off her earpiece.

It had been two hours since Maggie vanished from the med bay, and her tracker hadn't once been online. Winn was busy using the advanced DEO satellites to see if any of them could pick up human signatures or lifeforms in the nearby galaxies on the roof of the building, assisted by any expert on astrology and aliens the DEO had.

Alex had half a mind to start dispatching DEO agents to the planets they knew to ask around, but she knew that it would be a suicide mission  _nobody_  higher than her would sign off on.

If she really was off world, or maybe even in another dimension... There was nothing Alex could do.

Dejectedly, she dropped down onto a chair at a nearby desk in the command center. Feeling hot tears pool in her eyes, stinging as she tried to blink them away. She had a superhero alien sister, an alien boss… But she was only human, and so was Maggie.

At least when Maggie was inside the walls, she knew where she was. She knew that if all else failed, she could fly to the town and get her.

But now… This was more than a needle in a haystack. This was a grain of sand on a hundred-mile long beach. Impossible.

"Ma'am?"

Alex looked up and sniffed instinctively at seeing Johnson walking up to her with a confused scowl on his face. He'd seen Alex at her worst and most vulnerable, and she honestly appreciated him for respecting her all the same, and supporting her through it.

"Yes, Johnson?"

He glanced back. "We… have a visitor. I wasn't sure if I could let her in, but she was quite adamant she'd talk to you."

"Whoever it is, she can wait. We have more important things to deal with." Alex shot back, not really in the mood for bureaucracy – it was probably some councilor or senator there to throw her weight around with legislation. They'd been there before, and Alex was sure she'd start ripping off heads if it happened now.

" _I know._ "

The voice came from behind Johnson, and Alex stepped aside, her eyes widening as she saw who he was talking about.

Instinctively, she reached for her gun, pulling it and pointing it at her.

Ada chuckled dryly, raising her hands. "I know we might not be the best of friends, agent Danvers, but I'd appreciate it if you pointed that thing…  _elsewhere_."

"What the  _hell_  are you doing here?!" Alex yelled at her. Johnson had a hand on his holster, but seemed hesitant to draw, instead glancing at both women to wait for anything to happen.

"I came to talk to you. I know Maggie's not safe here."

"Yeah, not anymore she's not." Alex clicked the safety off effortlessly, to show that she meant business.

"Did he take her?" Ada's eyes widened. "Already?!"

Alex's clenched jaw gave the answer away. But instead of celebrating, or maybe drawing a gun herself – at this point, Alex was prepared for anything – she glanced down with a pained wince. "I shouldn't have let her go. I shouldn't have walked away when she needed me."

The words were like a slap to Alex's face. "You  _manipulated_  her into thinking that you were her savior, that you'd protect her through all of it-…"

"I  _did_ , didn't I?!" Ada shot back. "I'm the reason she's still alive!"

"Yeah, because of a murder plot that you  _faked_  to get her attention!"

"What?!" Ada frowned, before she apparently realized what Alex was talking about. "No! Not that, that was just…  _something else._ I'm talking about the Feast of Duality!"

"Feast of…" Alex repeated, never having heard the term before. She'd heard Maggie talk about everything being in twofold with the Shepard, but this was news.

Ada rolled her eyes. "The day everybody died. The Feast of Duality – she was supposed to die too. But she didn't."

"You  _saved_  her…" Alex whispered. Instinctively, she lowered the gun. Ada sighed in relief but only slightly, before she took a step in Alex's direction. "There isn't much time. I think I have an idea about where he took her, but we need to be fast."

"Why? What's happening?!" Alex still didn't feel like she could trust Ada at all. It seemed like the woman was everywhere at once, too convenient and easy not to be a ploy.

But she humored her, because if she could point her to Maggie, at least she'd know. Whether she'd be abducted herself didn't matter, as long as Maggie and her were together. As long as the detective knew that she was coming.

Ada took a deep breath. "He's coming for me next. And once he has me, you'll never find her."

"Why not?!"

Ada looked her in the eyes. "Maggie can  _never_  find out about the Bridge, Alex. If she does – you'll wish she was dead."


	17. Chapter 17

Before Alex realized it, she had pointed her gun at Ada once more, her face distorted with anger. "I'm not playing games anymore. You have five seconds to start telling me the truth, and if you don't, you're never walking out of here alive."

Ada chuckled dryly, seemingly unimpressed. "What, you think your little DEO black site will shut me down?" She took a threatening step forward and raised an eyebrow. "You don't know what you're up against, agent Danvers. You don't know who my allies are."

"Clark Kent?" Alex countered, cocking her own eyebrow in return. "Your buddy down at the Daily Planet?"

"Now, come on, Alex." Ada laughed. "Let's not circle around each other and pretend we're ignorant." She crossed her arms. " _Superman_."

Alex was taken aback by the statement. From what Kara had told her, Clark had never told her his real identity. But Ada seemed to be enjoying the effect her words had. "I'm an investigative journalist, you think a pair of  _glasses_  will fool me? Besides, as if anyone would buy his whole 'I'm friends with the Man of Steel' act."

Alex felt her hand waver, but didn't lower the gun. Clark had made some questionable choices in the past, but to be fair – so had Kara. And both cousins stood for justice and righteousness – she didn't peg Clark for the type of person that would trust someone this evil.

"What does you being friends with Clark have to do with anything?"

"Don't you  _see_?!  _God_ , if I'd known Maggie's girlfriend was this stupid, I'd have-…"

" _Wife_." Alex corrected her effortlessly, lowering the gun. "Why did you save Maggie's life? Were you in love with her?"

Ada tilted her head. "Can't deny she's a looker. She's got that badass don't-fuck-with-me kind of attitude. But without the leather vest and with the glasses, the effect was kind of gone."

Alex raised her eyebrow again in challenge – Ada had avoided the question completely.

Eventually, the blonde sighed. "Look. She wasn't meant to survive. On the contrary – he wanted her killed. At the Feast of Duality, he brought her up to the stage, and exposed her for all of the townspeople to see and hear. Told them all about how she was an undercover cop, ready to bring the entire cult down."

Alex felt her stomach sink.

* * *

 

_She hadn't told Alex that she was sorry._

About any of it.

The idiot way she'd been acting about the cult, about Ada, about everything that happened during the op. She hadn't told Alex how much she appreciated the agent giving her space, giving her time to heal.

And now, it was starting to look like she might never even see her wife again.

Staring down at the concrete floor of the cell, barely managing to keep her eyes open. She was tired,  _tired,_ and confused and hurt.

And  _where was she?_

She tried to concentrate. The iron door guarding the prison seemed unnecessary, as the Shepard could flit his way inside of the cell, and out again. So there had to be a reason why it was there.

She stumbled to her feet and walked to the door, examining it up close. It was rusty and old, the metal was chipping off around the edges. On eye level, there was a square hatch that could probably be shoved open to look inside without opening it.

She pressed her nose against it, trying to get any sort of indication. But aside from the rusty iron smell, there was nothing. Maggie grunted, and rested her forehead against it, trying her best not to give up. But the more she started to feel the situation was hopeless, the more she realized that Alex would never find her.

Desperately, she started to punch the door, knocking against it. If there was a door, that meant it had to lead to a hallway, or at least to another room. If anyone could hear her…

After a few tries, she realized that nobody was coming, and turned around, sliding down the door with her back, until she was leaning against it.

"Shit." She whispered to herself.

Her hopelessness gave way a few seconds later, when she heard a noise coming from behind the door, and heard the screeching iron giving away.

She jumped up, and moved to the other side of the room, pressing herself against the concrete wall just in case whoever it was tried to attack her on sight.

When the door opened, Maggie squinted against the harsh light meeting her. But when her eyes adjusted, and she saw the figure standing in the doorway, her stomach dropped.

"They got you too."

* * *

 

"…He ordered me, Tess and Elise to put poison in the food at the banquet for the entire town, and gave us each a vial of what he told us was an antidote." Ada chuckled dryly. "I knew that it was no good. He wanted to take all of us out."

"How did you survive?" Alex shook her head, trying to process what Ada was telling her.

Ada paused. "I knew what he was going to do. I knew he would expose her at the Feast, and order his followers to lynch her. I also knew that his antidote was bullshit. But I knew where to find the real one."

"Where?!" Alex practically yelled, already feeling like she knew the answer.

Ada smiled. "North Bridge."

Alex clenched her eyes shut for a moment, trying to think. If Ada wasn't North Bridge, then…  _Who was?_

"I gave Maggie half of my antidote without her knowing. More than half – which is probably why I didn't wake up the second she did." She sighed. "I should have given her all of it. I'm the reason she's in this mess."

"Why? What did you do?" Alex asked, her fingers already caressing the gun she'd previously holstered once more.

"We knew that she was coming. The second she stood outside our walls, we knew that she was undercover. She checked in with you about three times a day – we all  _heard_  it. We knew. The townsfolk didn't, but that didn't matter. Because we knew that the Shepard was going to expose her the second he had a reason to."

"So why then?" Alex shot back. "Why at the Feast? What happened?"

Ada sighed deeply. "It shouldn't have happened. But… She found out."

Alex felt her heart jump. "She knows who North Bridge is?"

"Not North Bridge, no." Ada laughed. "Though I'm sure she'll find out soon. No, she found out about  _me_."

"You…" Alex now drew her gun again, not hesitating to click off the safety either. Because those words surely couldn't mean…

Ada raised her hands slowly. "The Duality of things, Alex. Where there's black, there's white. Where there's hot, there's cold. And where there's North…"

"There's South…" Alex whispered, her eyes widening. "Y-you're… South Bridge?"

"At your service, agent Danvers."


	18. Chapter 18

"We need to hurry." Ada rushed past Alex, running down the steps towards the exit. Alex frowned as she watched her go, before running after her. "Wait! We don't have-…"

"What?" Ada yelled over her shoulder. "Guns? Back-up? A clue about what we're doing?! I'll explain everything, but you need to follow me, and stay close behind me!"

Alex was less than enthusiastic about the idea of running into danger head-first and taking the huge leap of faith that meant trusting this woman blindly, but if she led her to Maggie, she'd take it.

As soon as they were outside, Ada stopped and looked around the street. "He'll have… Both of them… Which one, which one…"

Alex tried to control her breathing as she watched the woman struggle. "Need any help…?"

"Shut up." Ada snapped in annoyance. "It can't be...  _there_ , but…"

Alex started to grow more and more suspicious of Ada's muttering – it sounded like the woman herself had no idea where she was supposed to go.

Alex was just about to make another comment, when the woman whooped. "Yes! I remember the portal… Come with me, hurry!"

Ada ran down the street, almost getting run over by a passing car in the process, and ran around to the driver's side, yanking the man out of the seat and onto the ground. Alex's eyes widened. "That's a  _civilian_! You can't just-…"

"Get in the car, Danvers." Ada yelled, before jumping in behind the wheel.

The agent only had one second to fling every moral code she had out of the window, and get into the passenger seat.

When Ada put her foot down on the gas pedal and the car lurched forward, Alex braced herself against every surface she could find while reaching for her seatbelt. "You know, we  _have_  cars at the DEO, we could have just taken one."

"Yeah, no questions asked, right? I know your protocols – you government agents can't even sneeze without having to fill in a form."

"Well,  _thank you_  for saving me the paperwork." Alex rolled her eyes. "Where are we going?"

"The Shepard told me about a few portals scattered in the vicinity of the Settlement. So that if anyone needed to get in or out fast, they could disappear without walking out the gate. Only a handful of people knew about them, and the Shepard didn't need them. But I started to look into their locations, and one's here in National City."

"So… Maggie's in the Settlement?!" Alex clenched her jaw. The tracker had shown that she wasn't traceable on this planet, so that had to mean that it was somehow jamming the tracker signal.

Ada saw the gears turning in Alex's head, and decided to humor her. "It's a dome. Over the Settlement. A protective barrier that allows the Shepard to create anything he want inside of it, like a sandbox. Outside of it, he can only teleport. But inside… he can perform miracles. That's how his kind works. He let the tracker pass through it when she was there because he didn't want to blow her cover yet."

Alex nodded slowly. So he wasn't a being from another dimension. Just a really far-fetched alien magician.

"But he's not strong enough to create and maintain the barrier on his own. That's why when he created it, he needed two people to carry the burden of keeping the wall up with their own energy and strength. The bridge from his abilities to his followers."

Now, everything was starting to make sense.

Ada chuckled. "Originally, Elise was South Bridge. She helped him create the barrier, but it made her too weak to maintain it as time passed, so he handed it over to Tess. But when I arrived at the Settlement, about a year ago, I worked my way in, and the title was handed over to me a few months after that. To get the bond, one has to have a deep connection with the person that the barrier facilitates, so the Shepard. That's why we're all his wives."

Alex glanced at her. "So, North Bridge…?"

"North Bridge is a different story. They usually stay outside of the barrier to keep it up, so they weren't in the Settlement." She glanced sideways to see a frustrated frown appearing on Alex's face. "Look, I know you want to know who they are. But believe me – it's better if you don't. If you know who they are, they'll never let you walk away, they'll  _kill_  you, Alex."

"And why do you care?!" Alex shot back. "You saved Maggie's life, you helped her in there, you made her  _cheat_  on me!"

"We never did anything else but kiss, and even  _that_  was out of necessity." Alex was taken aback by how serious Ada looked about it. "I wouldn't do that. I had to get her to a certain point of trusting me, because I know that the Shepard wanted me to play the part, and I needed to keep her safe."

"Why?!" Alex now yelled.

"Because of Clark, okay!" Ada screamed back, losing her patience. But after her outburst, she paused to calm down a bit. When she opened her mouth again, she sounded much more composed. "I knew that they were sending somebody from National City. And when I got the photo and I sent it to Clark, he told me that Maggie was a friend of Supergirl's. Of  _his_. One of his allies. Believe me, I would have  _killed_  her to keep myself alive, but I couldn't let her die. Not after all he did for me."

The silence after the explanation was deafening, and Alex felt like she'd been punched in the gut. Ada had saved Maggie out of a code of honor that she hadn't even remotely seen in the other woman. But now…

Now Alex was convinced that Ada wasn't evil. She was a  _survivor_.

She'd done everything to keep herself alive, but keep Maggie alive too, even sacrificing herself in the end by giving the detective the bigger part of the antidote.

"I'm sorry." Alex whispered, breaking the tension. "I shouldn't have… assumed, I guess, I don't…"

"It's fine. I'm sorry I had to… be that person for her."

"Thank you for saving her."

Ada managed a lopsided smile. "Would do it again in a heartbeat."

The rest of the drive up to the location was spent in silence. But when Ada pulled over in a shady and narrow alley, she glanced over at Alex. "The Shepard probably knows I'm alive by now, and he'll be waiting for me to return."

But when she jumped out of the car, Alex saw a different emotion appear behind the woman's eyes. Vengefulness, anger, decisiveness… and now sadness.

And it didn't take the genius Alex was to figure out why.

"You don't think you're going to come back."

Ada stopped in her tracks, and faced the agent. "It's fine."

Alex stepped forward and shook her head. "No, it's not. I'm going to make sure you're coming back through that portal with us. And if not – I'll get a fucking chopper in the sky to pull you out. But I am  _not_  leaving you behind."

A weak grin from the blonde. "Thanks, Danvers."

"I didn't bring anything but my sidearm. If I'd known, I could have…"

"No need." Ada shook her head, reaching into her pant leg and fishing out a small handgun. "You're not the only one that has toys."

"Shouldn't we call Supergirl or Superman too?"

"Believe me, we're better off without them. He is hyper-prepared for a kryptonian to come flying through the sky, ever since Supergirl first came scouting the town. He managed to get his hands on kryptonite, it wouldn't do you any good."

"How do you know about-…"

"I don't know if you heard, but I'm a bit of an alien expert. It's kind of my thing. I've been studying Clark ever since I found out, so trust me when I say – kryptonians are a no-go."

Alex nodded slowly, reaching into her pocket to fire off a quick message to J'onn, hoping that he would see it fast enough to come help.

"You ready?"

Alex smirked, and tried to ignore how fast her heart was beating.

"Let's do it."

Ada grabbed Alex by the back of her DEO shirt, and yanked her towards the end of the alley, to a spot on the wall behind a few soggy cardboard boxes.

When Alex saw the wall disappear in front of her, she was surrounded by trees. But the leaves had started to turn brown, and it looked like the green forest from earlier was starting to lose its appeal, and die.

"The Garden of Eden…" She whispered to herself.

Ada nodded. "Well, now that Eden is dead, it's only appropriate that his forest died too."

Alex pulled her gun and stayed alert to her surroundings, but replied nonetheless. "Eden? The boy? His son?"

"The Shepard was training him to see if he could become a Bridge when he was old enough." Ada replied. "So he started with a forest that Eden kept alive with his body."

"Jesus…" Alex shook her head. Ada raised her gun too, and started walking. "The bunker underneath the forest, where the five of us slept. There's another portal in there that leads to a section of the bunker you can't reach from here. He'll have taken her there."

"Why did he kidnap her? Why not just kill her?"

Ada shrugged. "He probably likes how feisty she is. He'll force her to become another Bridge to a new civilization, on the other side of the Earth, or maybe even on a different planet."

Alex's jaw clenched. She  _wouldn't_  let her wife become the host for some weird alien magic barrier spell. Over her dead body.

When they saw the hatch in the ground, they both lowered their guns. Ada looked up. "I'll go first. Follow my lead, don't make any noise."

"Roger."

The hatch squeaked as it opened, but then, it was complete silence.

* * *

 

"They got you too."

Maggie nodded slowly. "Dorian…"

"H-he took me, I-I've lost all track of time...  _Please_  help me… Do you know how to get out of here?" Dorian's voice was shaky, and he looked pale and scared to death.

Maggie shook her head. "I've only been down here about an hour, I don't even know where we are. Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

"Just some bruises from falling, I think." Dorian sniffed. "Please… I want to go home. I-I've only seen the Shepard, and he said he'd come back to punish me for leaving. You have to help me…"

"Dorian." Maggie tried to get his attention, pulling him out of the cell and into a small corridor that lead to a room on the other side. "Do you know your way around? Where are we?"

"This is just a big room, with the cell connected to it. But there's no way out, I think he zapped me in here, there's no door or hatch leading to the outside, I've tried _everything_."

Maggie nodded. "Okay. Okay, don't worry, Dorian. We're going to get you out."

"Do you know who North Bridge is?" Dorian asked with wide eyes. Maggie felt her stomach drop at hearing those words. "I- The Shepard was talking about it when I saw him the last time he was here. Something about a connection…"

"I don't know who it is. But we'll figure it out. Alright?" She was trying to convince him to fight back, but he seemed too far gone already. And Maggie didn't blame him – being cooped into that cell for a few minutes was claustrophobic enough.

Realizing that there was nowhere left to go was a completely different matter.

"We'll have to wait it out. See if anybody can come rescue us. Or maybe, if the Shepard comes back, try to overpower him."

Dorian nodded breathlessly, his chest still heaving too fast in panic. "M- _Maggie,_ he said he was going to kill me."

"I won't let that happen. Now, what did he say about North Bridge, Dorian? Do you remember what he said?"

"Uh… He said…" Dorian clenched his eyes shut trying to recall the words. "Uh… something about strength, and energy… and he said your name."

"My name?"

_So she was destined to become a new North Bridge for him?_

"I don't know! I can't remem-…" Dorian was cut off by a blinding light filling the room, causing the both of them to jump backwards.

When Maggie looked up again, her heart stopped.

Alex and Ada, standing in the middle of the room, guns raised. Both she and Dorian raised their arms instinctively, as she heard Dorian starting to whimper next to her. "There's no-one here."

Ada lowered her gun immediately and sighed, but Alex still kept hers up. Only when Dorian started to hyperventilate at the sight of the barrel being pointed in his direction, did she holster it. She ran up to Maggie, and the two of them almost crushed each other in a hug. Alex pulled back to take Maggie's face into her hands, and kiss her deeply. " _God_ , I was so scared…"

"I'm okay. You found me."

"Thanks to Ada." Alex glanced back to see Ada had run over to Dorian and was seeing if he was alright. She leaned forward to whisper in Maggie's ear. "Ada is South Bridge. There's a barrier around the town that makes the Shepard's magic miracles possible, and the two Bridges use their bodies to keep the barrier up."

Maggie's eyes widened. It was the recapped version, but it was still a truckload of information to be dropped all at once. Though, it couldn't have made more sense.

Ada broke the silence. "We have to move, there'll be a portal somewhere around here that can take us back to the bunker. Find it."

The three of them started to look around for a disturbance in the surroundings that could indicate an invisible portal.

But they didn't get very far, as the next second, a  _pop_  behind them made all of them look up.

_The Shepard._

Alex moved to stand in front of Maggie protectively, raising her gun once again. But the man only chuckled. "Now, is that a way to greet an old friend?"

"I found her." Alex spat back. "And no matter where you keep running off to, I'll find you too."

"Is that a threat?" The Shepard chuckled. But Alex raised her gun to his eyes and shook her head. "It's a promise."

The Shepard glanced back at Ada. "I assume she's made her introduction?"

Alex bit back another snarky comment, as she watched Ada smirk and walk up to the Shepard with an evil glint in her eyes. "They played right into my hand, just like you said."

"Good. Well, let's not spoil the fun any longer."

"Dorian, come here." Maggie said, now seeing how the man was standing behind the Shepard and Ada, fear evident in his eyes. "Don't you  _dare_  touch him!"

The last part was directed at the Shepard, who only laughed and looked back. "Him? Oh, don't worry Margaret, I won't hurt Dorian. He's been nothing but loyal and valuable."

Both Alex and Maggie watched the fearful look on the young man's face disappear instantly, replaced with the same smirk, as he walked up to stand next to the Shepard. "Glad to see I can finally drop the charade,  _dad_."

Alex and Maggie shared a look of uncertainty and fear, as they finally realized that the last piece of the puzzle had been in front of them this whole time.

_North Bridge_.

It had been Dorian all along.


	19. Chapter 19

Maggie heard Alex's sharp intake of breath, and knew that it was useless.

The Shepard had won.

Seeing Ada on his right side, Dorian on his left… If they both held up the barrier that allowed him to use his endless powers, then there were only two options.

They could either try and get the Shepard out of the Settlement and overpower him there, or they'd have to lower the barrier somehow.

Effectively killing Ada and Dorian.

Because any other way besides those two ended in either or both of them being killed.

Alex jumped to the conclusion first, pulling her gun. Maggie realized she was defenseless, as she didn't have her gun on her. But Ada was still holding a gun loosely in her hand, and she could aim and shoot Alex through the head in less than a second if she wanted to.

" _Alex_ …" Maggie whispered carefully. She felt her wife shift uneasily, seemingly unsure herself on how to take control of the situation.

The Shepard chuckled. "Do you really think a piece of metal will stop me?"

Alex's hands remained still, the gun trained on the Shepard. But then she changed course, and moved the gun to point at Dorian. Maggie saw the Shepard flinch just slightly, but also noticed how Ada's hands were inching the gun up.

If the woman was as trigger happy as Alex currently was, she couldn't take that risk.

"Margaret, I am giving you a choice. Nobody has to get hurt today. Now you know how this works, I am inviting you to join me. Become a new Bridge for me, so my power can be even stronger, and I'll let your wife go freely."

"Don't listen to him." Alex shot back immediately. " _Babe_ , he's trying to play tricks on you."

"You have my word. I saved your life in the Settlement, while I could have let you die. I am a man of my word, Margaret. I will not harm her, or any of your friends."

Maggie glanced at Alex, who had her gaze focused on the trio in front of her, unwavering. "Don't…"

The detective knew that the Shepard could kill Alex in a heartbeat if she tried anything stupid. The least she could do was work with him, and hope that Alex would find her again, this time outside of the barrier.

"Okay, okay." Maggie said quickly. "I'll do it. Just… Don't hurt her."

" _Maggie_." Alex's eyes widened. "Stop, what are you-…"

She cut herself off when she saw Maggie smile sadly and move to stand in front of her, looking her in the eyes. "Just promise me that you won't forget."

Alex shook her head forcefully, tears filling her eyes. "How could I forget…?!"

"I'll always choose you, Alex." Maggie blinked away her own tears. "No matter what."

" _Don't leave me_ …" The agent whispered. But when she saw Maggie wink, she realized that Maggie was onto something else completely.

She understood.

Maggie turned around and walked back to stand in front of the Shepard. "Just tell me what to do."

The man smirked, and raised his hand for Maggie to take in hers. "Your heart will always belong to her. But your body can belong to me, as long as you  _accept_."

Maggie glanced back at Alex's fake dejected stance, before turning back to him.

"I accept."

After that, all hell broke loose.

Maggie reached for the Shepard's hand, but ducked to the side and yanked Ada's gun out of her hands, pulling the woman back and bringing her forearm down to her throat, holding her in a chokehold.

Alex, meanwhile, had aimed at Dorian's head, and taken a clean shot. The man's head yanked back, blood and brains splattering all over the back concrete wall as the body dropped down.

The Shepard's head yanked to the left as he watched Dorian drop, and moved a hand forward to fling Alex back telekinetically.

Maggie was frozen as she watched Alex's body hit the wall behind her forcefully, a loud  _crack_  echoing through the room as she slumped to the ground, unmoving.

" _Alex_!" She yelled desperately, praying that the sound she'd heard wasn't her wife's skull smashing to pieces. Ada whimpered in her arms, but she pointed the gun at the blonde's head nonetheless. "Don't come any closer."

It was a warning to the Shepard, who glanced at Dorian's lifeless and bloody corpse before focusing on his hands, seeing them tremble. Maggie enjoyed it thoroughly. The faster this was over, the faster she could go check on Alex. All she had to do was convince him to get her help. Whatever happened after that, she'd be fine with it.

"One down, one to go." Maggie said, pressing the gun deeper into Ada's temple. The Shepard raised an pleading hand. "No, no,  _wait,_ hold on a second, Margaret. We… can talk."

"One bullet straight through her head and you're done. And then I'll put a bullet in yours too, for good measure. How's that for talking?"

"I gave you a  _choice_." The Shepard shot back. "None of the others had a choice! If  _you_  hadn't come into the Settlement when you did, they wouldn't have needed to die! Their blood is on  _your_  hands, Margaret."

"Okay. How about I  _do_  give you a choice." Maggie tried her best not to let her voice betray how scared she was. "You send my wife up to a hospital right now, to get her help. And I'll let go of Ada, and give her the gun back."

The Shepard chuckled.

Maggie realized that he saw right through her tough façade.

"I hardly think you're in the position to be making that bargain, Margaret."

Maggie clutched Ada's throat a bit tighter, as she watched his focus shift to the other side of the room.

"No,  _you_  are going to let go of Ada right now…" The Shepard raised a hand, causing Alex to shoot up, gasping for air. Before she had a second to gain her breath, he was already flicking his wrist, causing her to fling back into the wall to the right and drop down again. "… or your wife will die a slow and painful death."

Maggie's insides clenched at the sight of Alex struggling to raise herself up from the ground. But as the agent saw the situation she was in, her eyes found Maggie's, and she shook her head. "Don't… don't let him win this.  _I can take it_."

"Alex…"

" _Enough_!" The Shepard yelled, another hand motion knocking Alex down again. Maggie shook her head, clenching her eyes shut. "Stop,  _stop_ , you're killing her! STOP!"

"GIVE ME WHAT I WANT, MAGGIE!" The Shepard screamed, now finally losing his patience, and squeezing his hand around something invisible. Only when Alex began to cough and splutter, did Maggie realize that her time was truly up.  _He was choking her._

Her heart pounding in her chest, she let go of Ada and tossed the gun onto the ground. "There! Please, Shepard!"

The Shepard showed no signs of stopping.

Maggie's eyes widened, as she ran forward to tackle him to the ground. But the second she got close to him, she felt a jolt of electricity stun her completely, as if he'd just tased her. Her entire body shook as she crumpled to the ground.

Two legs in beige slacks moved into her field of view, before the Shepard crouched down in front of her, moving a stray lock of hair back and caressing her face. "It could have been perfect."

"I would  _never_  join you." She spat with what little energy she had left. "And I can't  _fucking_  wait to bring you down."

The Shepard sighed sadly. "I suppose you've made up your mind then."

He got up, and Maggie heard him walk over to Ada. She managed to flip over so that she could face him. It was strenuous, and her limbs protested loudly, but she had to show him that he couldn't break her. Not anymore.

"Let's go, Ada." The Shepard said.

"What about…" The blonde trailed off, gazing at the lifeless corpse of Dorian, the pool of blood still spreading slightly.

The Shepard sighed ostentatiously. "We'll find another Bridge. Leave him."

"But… He's your son…"

"I'll bury him when I get back." He grunted.

But Maggie zoned out completely.

Because the second she'd glanced at Alex from her spot on the ground, she realized that something was very wrong.

" _She's not breathing_." She whispered.

More to herself, and she assumed that they would be long gone and not hear her. But as pure adrenalin and fear took over her and she started crawling her way towards her wife's lifeless body, she realized that the conversation next to her had gone completely silent.

"Alex…  _no_ …" She pleaded, finally reaching her wife and moving her head to rest on her chest, listening and watching, trying to notice another rise and fall of her soulmate's chest. " _Please_ , babe… Please wake up…"

At the absence of any movement, she moved two fingers and gently pushed them into Alex's neck, mindful of the bruises that were starting to appear from the Shepard's earlier choking.

She didn't want to think about how many bones were probably broken in her body.

"No…" Maggie clenched her eyes shut, feeling tears run down her cheeks already at the absence of any sign of life coming from the agent underneath her.

Shuffling footsteps next to her came closer, but she ignored them in favor of holding Alex up to rest against her chest, and wailing loudly. " _God_ , no… Please… I can't do this without you… I don't…  _Alex_ …"

"Maggie,  _move_." It was Ada, putting a hand on her shoulder. But Maggie pushed her away.

"You need to heal her!" Ada's yell wasn't directed at her, but at the Shepard in the corner. The man chuckled. "Why would I do that? Why would  _you_  care for her, after all you-…" He cut himself off. "You gave her the antidote Dorian gave you."

Maggie managed to glance up through her tears to look at the scene unfolding. The Shepard put a step forward. " _That_ 's how she survived. You  _saved_  her."

"I had to. You wouldn't have understood."

"You  _lied_  to me." The Shepard hissed at Ada, but the woman didn't back down. "I promised you my body, but you'll  _never_  have my mind or heart."

The Shepard blinked. "You loved her."

Maggie was breathless, still holding on to Alex's body as if she were a lifeline. But as she saw the look on Ada's face, she realized what the woman was about to do.

Ada crouched down, and picked up the gun that Maggie had discarded, looking at it before chuckling.

And raising the gun to rest the barrel on her temple, glancing up at the Shepard threateningly.

"Bring her back to life, or I kill myself, and all of this is over."


	20. Chapter 20

The Shepard raised his hands, taking a step back. Maggie saw the look on his face, and it wasn't even a shadow of the usual confidence the man seemed to possess.

"I know what happens when I die. You become weak,  _human_. Your powers are gone."

"Ada…" The Shepard whispered, but the blonde continued without a hitch. "… Heal her, or you're done."

The Shepard chuckled weakly, but when he noticed Ada's finger clenching the trigger tightly, his eyes widened. "Okay, okay! I'll do it!"

Ada kept the gun trained on her temple, but watched as he moved closer to where Maggie was clutching Alex's lifeless body, to put a hand on her shoulder. "Let go, Maggie."

" _No_." Maggie shook her head, tears streaming down her face. If she let go of Alex, he could take her away  _forever_ , and then…

"If you want me to save her, you need to let go."

"Why would I trust you?" Maggie snapped back, caressing Alex's pale and still face.

"Let go, Mags."

It was Ada's voice, and the detective's head snapped up in her direction. The blonde still had a gun to her own head, and was smiling sadly. "I promise you, she's going to be okay, but you need to  _let him_."

Maggie took a shaky breath, tracing a path down Alex's cheek with her index finger, before she sniffed and nodded, lowering her to the floor gently and crawling away from her.

The Shepard glanced back, before moving towards Alex's body and putting a hand on her chest and her head, mumbling words that Maggie didn't understand.

She felt a hand envelop her own, and saw that Ada had taken it and squeezed it gently. The whole scene was completely fucked up.

So Maggie squeezed back for all she was worth, watching the man that had hurt the three of them, captured them and made them play his game, that had taken control of Maggie's life for the past month, now trying to save Alex's life.

But as the seconds ticked away and the Shepard kept whispering, a fear began to cloud Maggie's mind.

_She was never going to get Alex back._

Killing Dorian had effectively halved the man's powers. Whatever he'd done to Maggie when she had been brought back to life in the Settlement could be too much for him now.

It was only a matter of time until he shot up and told her that it was useless.

And Maggie was starting to accept it. Because as much as he pushed down on Alex's chest and whispered his incantations, if he wasn't strong enough there was nothing she could do about it.

Her wife, her soulmate.

Dead in the man's cold arms.

A tremble began to run up and down her body, until it finally turned into sobbing. " _Please_ , Alex…"

The Shepard's eyes remained closed, stuck in his trance. Ada squeezed her hand again. "It takes time, Maggie. Just try to stay calm. He'll get it."

"He could be  _faking it_." Maggie whispered back shakily. "He could…"

"No." Ada shook her head with a wince. "I feel him using his powers, he's not faking."

Maggie took comfort in the fact, but she also noticed that Ada was speaking with a strain, almost like she herself was under heavy pressure.

Maggie realized that she actually  _was_  under duress – with Dorian gone, a big act such as bringing Alex to life would mean an incredible amount of energy drained from Ada's body.

She noticed the blonde staggering, and rushed forward to wrap an arm around her waist and hold her close. "Hey… Stay with me, Ada, come on."

Ada grunted, keeping the gun up with a trembling hand, before her legs finally gave out. Maggie's eyes widened as she wrapped her other hand around her too and eased her down onto the floor. "Ada…?"

" _Mags_ …" The other woman whispered back. "H-he's… too powerful…"

"No, no, you have to stay awake, alright? Come on, he's almost done."

Ada chuckled weakly. "H-he was going to k-kill me anyway…"

"Don't say that." Maggie shook her head, clutching the woman's shaking hand. "Just focus on me, keep talking."

"I…" Ada winced. "I'm sorry I kissed you."

Maggie smiled weakly. "Don't think about it. I felt you putting something in my mouth. It was the antidote, wasn't it? You saved me."

"I  _wanted_  to…  _kiss you_. I'm sorry I did. I didn't know you were…" Ada turned her head to see the Shepard still kneeling next to Alex's body.

"It's okay. We were both undercover. But… We'll talk about this properly when you're better, alright?" Maggie took a shaky breath, feeling her heart pound. "Just hold on. It's almost over."

"A- _almost_ …" Ada flinched, tensing, before emitting a loud growl of pain. Maggie leaned back, only to see movement in the corner of her eyes.

Her heart jumped at the sight of the Shepard getting up from his knees, panting, and looking at her. "It's done."

Maggie's eyes flitted to Alex's shape on the floor.

Her chest heaving quickly as she was practically coughing up a lung.

But Maggie rushed forward, to Alex's side, and pulled her into her arms as she hugged her and held on to her for dear life. " _Babe_ …"

"Mags…?" Alex's confused voice. "What…?"

"Shh, it's okay. You're safe… You're okay." Maggie kept on repeating it, because she couldn't even believe it herself.

The Shepard had stumbled towards Ada, and was now holding her and talking to her. Maggie drowned it out to keep a hold on Alex.

"Babe?" Alex's questioning voice. Maggie pulled back to look at her.

"Did I… die?"

Maggie took a deep breath, and nodded slowly, as a tear jumped down her cheek and landed on Alex's neck. "Yeah. Yeah, you did."

Alex moved forward to wipe the tears off Maggie's cheeks with the pad of her thumb. "It's okay, Mags."

Maggie chuckled through a sob upon hearing the words. "I know."

" _You_."

The detective looked up at the word, spewed with the most hate she'd ever heard. The Shepard was glaring at her, getting up from Ada's now unmoving body.

_Oh god…_

"I drained her." The Shepard growled. "Because of  _you_  and your selfishness. You cost me Dorian, and now you cost me Ada too, Maggie. I cannot forgive you for that."

Maggie moved up so that she was crouched protectively in front of Alex's body. She wasn't sure what the Shepard was getting at, but she'd be damned if she let Alex get in the crossfire of it once again.

This was between the two of them.

As she'd moved, she'd picked up Alex's discarded gun off the floor. She knew that the Shepard had probably seen the move, but she felt safer knowing that if Ada was drained, his powers should have diminished greatly too, and he was vulnerable.

She just prayed he was vulnerable enough to be hit by a bullet.

"You made your choice." The man continued, moving in Maggie's direction. "Your wife's life or yours."

"Glad I made the right choice, then." Maggie sneered back. "If only you'd have been the Shepard you claimed to be, guiding your people into the light instead of into a mass grave. Maybe it wouldn't have come to this."

He shook his head. "More of me are coming to show you the right way, Margaret."

Maggie smirked. "I won't hold my breath."

As she raised the gun to fire off a bullet, the Shepard ran towards her and tackled her to the ground. Her eyes widened, as she awkwardly tried to maneuver them away from Alex's shape on the ground, his weight forcing her down onto the ground with a rough  _thud_.

She hoped that the bullet had hit its target. Because the grinning and panting in her left ear made her heart stop.

"I  _always win_."

Another shot rang out, as the pair of them collapsed, and Maggie felt herself sprayed with blood.

The body on top of her made it impossible to move, but it didn't take long for something to free her from the dead weight. 

More blood leaked down from the fresh bullet wound in the back of his head, but Maggie couldn't care less. As the face that came into view was looking at her with horror.

"Did he get you?! Are you okay?!"

She closed her eyes and allowed herself to rest her head back onto the floor once again, a laugh escaping her lips.

_Alex had hit him from behind with Ada's gun._

The crazed laughter did nothing to ease Alex's worried mind, but as Maggie reached for her hand to link them together, she realized that he was finally dead.


	21. Chapter 21

Everything was a blur.

From J'onn punching through the ceiling of the hidden corridor and feeling Alex's arms around her, to her getting pushed down onto a bed in the med bay and being checked out head to toe, Maggie had felt it all pass by without registering.

The first time she actually felt like herself was when Alex walked in, talking to one of the doctors in complete agent-mode. The second she laid eyes on her wife, the agent dismissed the doctor with some last directives, and moved up to stand next to her and kiss her forehead. "Hey."

"Shouldn't they check you out?" Maggie asked with a frown.

Alex smiled weakly. "They already did. Clean bill of health, don't worry."

Maggie nodded slowly, her head dropping back in relief. Alex was  _okay_. She was  _alive,_ and  _fine_.

"They just want to keep you here for some more blood work. A couple of hours tops." Alex continued. "Then we can go home, grab some food."

"I just wanna sleep." Maggie mumbled, tilting her head so that her face was cupped in Alex's hand.

The agent smiled. "I bet you do. Tell you what – you get some more rest, and we'll talk later, okay?"

"Okay… Love you."

Alex squeezed her wife's hand, and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. "I love you too, babe."

She stayed until she watched Maggie's eyes droop shut, and kissed her forehead once more before letting go of her hand.

After that, she walked out of the med bay, to the bio lab. She'd been meaning to go ever since she and Maggie returned to the DEO, but had put it off in favor of knowing that Maggie was going to be alright.

"Agent Danvers." She was greeted as soon as she walked through the door.

"You're awake." Alex tilted her head and crossed her arms, stepping closer to the bed on the other side. They had turned the bio lab into a makeshift med bay, connecting wires and IV's to the woman on the bed who was smiling weakly. "Thank you for bringing me back here."

"Thank  _you_  for bringing me back." Alex replied as she stopped at the woman's bedside. "Getting you help here was the least I could do."

"Is Maggie okay?" Ada frowned.

Alex's face twitched just slightly, but she nodded quickly. "Just resting up. She'll be fine once we go home."

The blonde sighed and leaned back. After a long silence, she finally sighed. "I feel like we should talk."

Alex crossed her arms once again, but motioned for Ada to start.

It took the woman a while to search for words, but then she looked Alex in the eyes. "I didn't know. And…" She laughed dryly, "…I didn't mean to make things complicated. I thought she was single, I took advantage of that fact. Took advantage of  _her_. I thought she'd be trained to second-guess me, but it wasn't the case."

Alex clenched her jaw, but didn't speak right away.

Ada continued. "I kissed her. Once. To give her the antidote to the poison. But I could have just given it to her and told her, and I didn't. I  _wanted_  to kiss her."

"That's enough." Alex cut the woman off. Ada shut up immediately, realizing that it was the agent's turn to speak.

"I am…  _grateful_." Was the first thing Alex said, and it seemed to catch the both of them off guard. "… I guess… I'm lucky that you liked her, because it meant that you kept her safe. And I talked to her every day, but that's the one thing I couldn't do. So…  _thank you_ , Ada."

"You're… welcome." The blonde stuttered in reply.

"And I don't blame you." Alex shook her head. "I fell for her the second I saw her. Just…  _know_  that me and her have history. That it won't be easy to come between us, and I don't advise you to try."

Ada chuckled. "You think I'm-… No, agent Danvers." She shook her head. "I'm not looking to get  _disposed of_  by the DEO. I'll back off, and I'll…  _try to_  forget about her."

The last sentence cut deep, and Alex could see the sorrow on the woman's face. But she reached for her hand and squeezed it anyway. "You're always welcome back, Ada. I'm sure Maggie agrees with me. Anytime, whatever you need."

"I'll hold you to it." Ada smiled weakly.

"And… When you get back, give my regards to Clark. Tell him to come by soon."

"I will. I'm sorry it… happened like this. I really am. We…  _I_  couldn't save the others."

Alex realized that she was talking about the bodies in the training room downstairs. The rest of the townspeople.

The ones they'd left behind.

"He won't hurt anyone ever again, Ada." Alex said. "You made sure of that. You were willing to sacrifice yourself to save us. To save  _me_."

"It's not good enough." Ada whispered, her eyes glassing over with unshed tears. Alex shook her head. "It'll never be good enough. I know that. But their blood isn't on your hands."

Ada didn't respond verbally, but stared down the foot of her bed. Alex realized that this was her cue, and smiled. "I'll make sure to swing by again later to check up on you. If there's anything you need…"

"Yeah."

As Alex headed for the door, she heard the woman behind her clear her throat once more. "Could you…"

The agent turned around and nodded.

Ada didn't finish the sentence, but she didn't need to.

"I'll send her here when she wakes up, don't worry."

Ada nodded gratefully, and leaned back against the pillows, a smile forming on her lips.

If closure was what she needed, then Alex would be happy to provide it.

* * *

 

"We should have been looking for him."

Alex opened her eyes weakly. She'd been on the verge of sleep, but was sent back by the voice next to her.

She tilted her head to look at the form of her wife next to her. The digital clock next to Maggie's head told her it was well past 2 AM. But the detective was wide awake apparently, and staring at the ceiling.

"What?"

"Dorian. We should have been looking for Dorian. He disappeared, and we didn't care."

"We did care." Alex replied. "We were looking for him."

"If we'd found him earlier we could have…" Maggie sighed, trailing off.

Alex didn't reply. She knew that Maggie was in the phase of trying to find a place where it all went wrong. A tangible thing or event she could actually be mad at, instead of realizing that it had been useless to try in the first place.

"I know how you feel." Alex just whispered.

Maggie actually glanced sideways to look Alex in the eyes, as the agent continued, getting a little closer to Maggie to put an arm across her chest. "We'll get through it, okay?"

"I keep on… hearing his voice in my sleep. Telling me that I'm not clean. That I need to get better. That I need to  _accept_."

Alex had her fair share of nightmares, but none as recent as the face of the Shepard staring down at her and grinning.

The same thing that murdered her was the one to bring her back.

Alex didn't know how to feel about it. But she'd embraced the fact that the Shepard would be on their minds a lot in the following days.

"What do you need, babe?"

Maggie shook her head, her bottom lip trembling. "I- I don't know."

Alex nodded, wrapping her arms around her. "It's okay. We'll figure it out. We don't need answers right now. You just tell me when you're ready."

The nod coming from the head resting on her shoulder made Alex smile, as she rubbed her wife's back. "I love you so much, babe."

Maggie lifted her head to look Alex into her eyes, blinking away tears as she nodded.

"I love you too."

Wrapped up in each other's embrace, it didn't take too long until they both were sound asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End.


End file.
